


The Golden Girl

by Clozzersaurusrex



Category: Riverdale (TV 2017)
Genre: AU, Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Angst, Co-workers, Enemies to Friends to Lovers, Eventual Romance, Eventual Smut, F/M, Riverdale AU, Slow Burn, bughead - Freeform, bugheadau
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-07-20
Updated: 2018-07-28
Packaged: 2018-12-04 14:46:04
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 7
Words: 26,154
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11557392
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Clozzersaurusrex/pseuds/Clozzersaurusrex
Summary: Fresh out of college, Betty Cooper gets a dream job working for Lodge Publishing House. The only problem is, her and Veronica Lodge have been best friends for four years, and some of her fellow colleagues, particularly one Jughead Jones, don't take too kindly to her personal connections with the Lodge family.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Hello! So this is my second Bughead fic. The idea came to me while I was driving extremely  
> late the other night and I haven't been able to stop thinking about it since. I have no idea how long this fic will go on for, or how much of a slow-burn it will actually be, so sorry in advance. I hope you enjoy it, and I'd really really appreciate your feedback and comments. It's been self-edited very quickly because I wanted to upload so sorry for any mistakes!

For most people, the sound of the alarm clock blaring out at six-thirty in the morning would be a very rude awakening. Betty Cooper, however, was not most people. When her phone began to buzz and play the first few notes of her current favourite song (Believer by Imagine Dragons, not that her best friend Veronica wasn't already sick of being told this fact) she was already sat at her dressing table, fully clothed, makeup on and hair smoothed back into a beautiful blonde ponytail. She stared at herself and let out a sigh. It was her first day working for Lodge Publishing House, one of Lodge Industries many organisations, and she was nervous. Betty had met Veronica Lodge the day they moved into their shared dorm room at Berkeley four years ago, and while at first she had been apprehensive about living with a wealthy daddy's girl, Ronnie had turned out to be a pleasant surprise. Of course, Veronica had high expectations when it came to just about everything and was the opposite of 'girl-next-door' Elizabeth Cooper in a lot of ways but they had become best friends nonetheless. She was nothing like the entitled princesses that Betty was used to when she thought of those kinds of girls. She was fiercely loyal, and trustworthy and had been with Betty every step of the way. Apparently, her father's near ruin a few years earlier has opened Veronica's eyes to the cruelty of social media bitches and she had been abandoned by her so called friends in the process. From then on, she had vowed never to be a bitch again, within reason of course.  


Being best friends with Ronnie hadn't given Betty any kind of head start when it came to the job at Lodge Publishing. Hiram had a very strict criteria when it came to the graduates he hired and Betty had been through a gruelling application process, meeting with various external interviewers before she finally got to meet with Mr Lodge's assistant and finally the man himself. She had of course spent quite a lot of time with Hiram over the course of her friendship with Veronica. In fact, when she couldn't quite bare to spend the whole of her summer or Christmas vacations under the watch of her overbearing mother, she would fly out to meet the Lodge's in some exotic location for the remainder, all expenses paid of course. Yet meeting with Mr Lodge under professional circumstances was still terrifying for Betty. When she reached his office on the fifty-fifth floor of Lodge Tower, he handed her a glass of champagne and congratulated her on impressing his team so much. He assured her that he kept very much out of the application process and didn't know the names of his candidates until they reached the final stage, if of course, they did well enough. She was one of three graduates to have made it to the final stage of interrogation, as he called it, and he had decided to hire all three to work for the publishing sector of his company. The celebrations had continued with a Lodge family dinner that evening, followed by numerous shopping and spa trips courtsey of Veronica's credit card, funded of course, by her father.  


'Betty you need to add a bit of sex into your wardrobe, Lodge industries can be a warzone and you need to stand out. Daddy will want his favourite new employee to be confident and well dressed.', Veronica had assured her as she paid for a fifth outfit. Over the weeks that followed she would also go on to justify their regular manicures and facials as 'part of being a professional woman.'  


Now, after weeks of preparation, judgement day had arrived. As she surveyed herself one more time, pulling her hair tighter, she stood up and pulled the skirt of her dress down as far as it would go. Veronica had practically commanded that Betty wear the fitted black pencil dress that clinched at her waist and curves in all the right places. She had been told she looked hot, and simply had to pair it with a pair of black mary janes and a burgundy belt around her waist.  


'Oh B, you'll be the talk of the office!', Veronica had delighted in telling her.  


However, Betty had never been one for attention, and she didn't want to start of her first day as the topic of workplace gossip. She had already found herself clenching her fists when she lay in bed at night, anxious at how her colleagues would react, and what they would think of her if they knew her personal relationship with the Lodges. She decided that instead of trying to look sultry and draw attention to herself she would cover her shoulders with a pale pink cardigan, a belt around her waist to match and a pair of nude flats. This was definitely more Betty Cooper, or at least the Betty Cooper her mother had always expected her to be. Besides it would kill her if she had to walk around in heels all day. As she paced over to the window she saw the sun was shining brightly and already a bead of sweat formed on her forehead. It was going to be a hot day in the city. It was still ridiculously early, and the last thing she wanted to do was seem too eager, but she most definitely could not sit in her room an longer. Betty was becoming overwhelmed by the familiar feeling of anxiety that strangled her and felt heavy in her chest. She had to get out, and it was the perfect day to walk the thirty minute journey to her office rather than catch the subway. A coffee was definitely much needed though, so she made the decision to make a quick stop for some breakfast on the way.  


As Betty made her way through the streets of LA towards the direction of Lodge Tower, she began to calm down a little. She had been chosen out of hundreds of applicants because of her ability and determination and not because of her connections. Her time helping her parents work on the Riverdale Register had given her more than an adequate amount of preparation. She could do this, and she knew it. It didn't matter what anyone else thought of her. As she headed into the coffee shop, her phone pinged, a text from Veronica wishing her luck on her first day Ronnie was going to be a few floors up from Betty, working with Hiram himself. Now she had her Business degree, he was going to start training her to be his second in command. As Betty headed towards the counter, only half paying attention, the last thing she expected to do was walk straight into the subtly defined chest of a tall, lean man. Any shock and annoyance that the intrusion had caused her soon melted away when his hand touched her arm to steady her and she met his eye. He wore trousers and a navy blue shirt, with burgandy suspenders and a jacket that he slung casually back over his shoulder as he removed his hand from her.His hair was dark, a strange knitted hat sitting on his head. His other hand held a coffee, the black liquid spilling over the top onto his fingers, but it didn't seem to bother him that he was being burnt by the liquid. A smirk spread across his face as her mouth dropped open to say something, but the words just wouldn't come out. She had never seen eyes quite like his. They were grey and blue and dreamy all at once and she was sure if she looked into them long enough she could be persuaded to tell him all her secrets.  
'I'll get you next time Princess.', he winked, lingering for a second before walking past her and out of the door. She could feel her heart pulsing in her chest, a fluttering finding it's way into her stomach.  
'Jesus, Betty, get a grip, you're a professional adult woman not a damn teenager!', she chastised herself, extremely aware of the blush that was working its way across her cheeks. She looked over her shoulder and watched the mystery figure disappear around the corner, lighting a cigarette as he did, before she composed herself and placed her order. Grabbing the paper bag that contained a blueberry muffin and taking the cup from the server, she quickly began to make her way to the door and continued in the same direction he had gone. She knew there was no chance of her catching him up, and even less of a chance of her ever seeing him again but she definitely considered walking to work via the Coffee shop more often. Betty smiled to herself as she took a sip of her drink and began to break off a chunk of her muffin. She could hear Veronica now, teasing her for this ridiculous crush and she decided not to mention it to her when they met for lunch later.

***

Betty looked up at the huge glass building in front of her and checked her watch. She didn't officially start work for another fifteen minutes, but she figured with it being her first day it was best if she made inside anyway. After all, the building was huge and had so many different floors and departments that she was bound to get lost somewhere along the way. The email from Hiram had told her that she should check in at the front desk before making her way to the top floor and speaking to his receptionist. From there he would formally welcome his new employees before his assistant would give them the official tour of the building. Veronica had told her the previous day that the other two graduates were called Ethel and Forsythe, and that they had nothing on Betty but did have very impressive applications. Making her way towards the large desk in the centre of the building, Betty smiled at everyone who passed her by. She was so excited to be here and she wanted to make a good first impression. Betty swallowed nervously, adjust her bag on her shoulder as she leaned forward onto the frosted glass.  
'Hello, I'm-'  
A ginger woman with freckles on her face looked up at Betty and smiled, recognising the girl in front of her and interrupting her introduction.  
'Elizabeth, yes, Miss Lodge is expecting you.'  
Betty's forehead wrinkled in confusion.  
'Miss Lodge?'  
'Yes, unfortunately Mr Lodge is running late this morning, so his daughter is here to meet you instead. Mr Jones is already here and waiting in the lounge over there if you'd like to join him, I'll let Miss Lodge know you're here.'  
Betty nodded, glancing over towards where the woman was pointing but quickly turned to look behind her as she heard the familiar click of louboutins on the marble floor.  
'Thank you Victoria but there's no need, Betty! Good morning!'  
Veronica pulled her friend into a hug, kissing her on both cheeks, before surveying her outfit with a slightly disapproving look.

'Betty, I thought we talked about dressing more like a sex goddess today?'

'Veronica, I thought we talked about not making a big deal about us being friends?'

'I think you mean best friends Elizabeth, now come on, Ethel had to fly home for a family emergency, so it's just the two of you today and we need to go and take a look at this new colleague of yours.'

Wiggling her eyebrows Veronica began to walk towards the seating area to her left. As Betty followed, she noticed a pair of eyes staring at them and she suddenly became very aware of the face that they belonged too. Before she had time to register what was happening, they were already practically in front of him and he stood up to shake Veronica's hand.

'Hello, you must be Forsythe, Welcome to Lodge Industries. This is Betty Cooper, your fellow graduate and colleague at Lodge Publishing House.' 

The man wasn't looking at Veronica, he was looking straight at Betty, a confused and disgruntled look on his face.

' I prefer to go by Jughead,' he said, still refusing to tear his gaze away from her now very red face, ' and I believe we already met.'

Betty nodded, dumbfounded at the sudden coldness to his tone. What happened to the flirty gentleman that she had quite literally bumped into in the Coffee shop?  
Veronica raised her eyebrows, intrigued by this knowledge of their former acquaintance, silently telling Betty that she wanted all the details later. 

'Is that so... well unfortunately, I have to attend a meeting, but if you'd like to make your way to floor fifty-five, Leanne will be waiting to show you around. It was nice to meet you Jughead, Betty, your lunch break should be at twelve, so meet me at my office then. Ciao.'

As quickly as Veronica had entered the lobby she exited, leaving Betty and Jughead behind her. They stood in silence for a few moments before Betty could no longer take it.

' I guess we should make our way upstairs then, Jughead?'

'Mmm, and I guess you really are a princess, princess.'

As he lead the way to the elevator, Betty was quick to follow.

'Excuse me, what?'

'Oh please. I thought you looked familiar this morning.You're Betty Cooper. Of course you'd get a job working for Lodge Industries, you are after all, at nearly every public event with Veronica, anyone who knows anything about the Lodge's knows who you are. I guess it really is about who you know. It must be nice to practically fall into a graduate job with one of the most competitive firms in the city.' 

Betty couldn't believe what she was hearing. As she stepped into the lift with him she began cursing Ronnie. God this had been a bad idea. How could she be so stupid as to think people would actually respect her for the hard work she had put into her education and to get this job? She began to regret the whole thing but it didn't last long as a sudden wave of anger hit her. She wasn't going to let a stranger who she had know for all of a minute judge her.

'Now hang on a minute, I worked really hard to get this job, I went through exactly the same process as you did to get here and it had nothing to do with my connection to the Lodge family, Hiram didn't even know I'd applied, he didn't know any of his applicants names or who they were until he offered them the job!' 

'Then why are you the only one to be on first name terms with 'Hiram'? It's Mr. Lodge to the rest of us, but not to you!' Jughead spat back. Betty stuttered, trying her hardest to think of a witty reply but for the life of her she couldn't. She began to say something but was quickly cut off by Jughead again.

'If you're the same as me and everyone else here, and if you got the job on the same terms that I did, then why aren't we both having lunch with Veronica Lodge? Hell why isn't the whole building meeting her in her office on their break?!'

'I-' 

'Exactly. I had to go through hell and back to get here today. I thought when I entered the adult world things would be different and people would actually pay attention to me for my hard work, but here I am still fighting for attention because Veronica Lodge's best friend is already the golden-girl of the office!'

At that moment, the doors of the elevator opened and Jughead strode out, not wasting even a second to glance back in her direction. Betty's mouth was practically on the floor and she felt the familiar feeling of her nails digging into her palms. She had no idea why she was letting him get to her so much but his words had hurt. She had spent her whole life being accused of being perfect, the golden-girl and she was tired of it. Blinking back tears, she let out a breath that she wasn't aware she'd been holding and followed him. Today was going to be a long day.


	2. Chapter 2

By the time Leanne had dismissed them for lunch, Betty was exhausted. It wasn't the tour of the building, or the introductions to the various members of staff they would be working with that had been so tiring, instead, it had been the constant glare of Jughead Jones. She had absolutely no idea what any of the people she would be working with were called and no idea who was in charge of what. She had spent the entire morning trying her hardest to ignore the quiet remarks and occasional snort that the raven-haired boy shot her way and she had been far too distracted by him to pay any attention to anything else. He had such a strong opinion about Betty and seemed to regard her with so much hatred in his voice. It infuriated her that someone whom she had done absolutely nothing too, who didn't know anything about her other than that she was friends with Veronica could treat her with such disdain. In the very brief moment they had met that morning she had been left flustered and it embarrassed her to admit she had spent the entire walk to the office thinking about the way his hand lingered on her arm. Yet it had all changed as soon as he had seen her with Veronica in the lobby. No matter how much she tried to hate Jughead back for his insatiable pride and presumptuous accusations, she simply couldn't. If anything, it made Betty want to know more about him, she was desperate to understand what had made him like this, what exactly he had meant when he said he'd been through hell and back. 

Finding her way to Veronica's office Betty knocked lightly, barely waiting a second before walking in and flinging herself into the sofa to the left of the desk. After the morning she'd had, she was pretty much done trying to act all professional when it came to her relationship with Ronnie, and besides, it was only the two of them. Betty was about to begin ranting about her morning when her best friend span the large leather desk chair around to face her, holding up a finger to get her to pause. Veronica had an earpiece that flashed green and Betty could here the faint sound of a voice coming from the other end. Veronica rolled her eyes, twiddling a pen around in her fingers and occasionally pressing it to a notebook she had open on the desk.

'Yes Daddy, the meeting went well. I got Leanne to schedule a conference call with the board next Tuesday. Yes, it's all taken care of. I have to go, Betty's here for lunch. Yes, I'll call you this afternoon, tell Mom I said Hi. Yes I'll tell her. Bye.'

Reaching up to her face, Veronica pressed a button on the side of the earpiece, presumably cutting of the call and removed it. Setting it down on the desk, she stood up and made her way over to the velvet arm chair across from Betty, smiling at her expectantly.

'Daddy apologises for his absence on your first day B. Running late this morning turned into him and my mom having to jet off to Europe to meet with some investors. Anyway, how's it going so far? I was half expecting you to blow me off and have lunch with James Dean instead.' Veronica smirked.

'Ugh please. He isn't that hot.' Betty scoffs.

'Ahh, but you do think he's at least a little bit hot? Come on B, you can't pretend you haven't noticed, he certainly noticed you anyway!'

'Yeah because he freaking hates me Veronica! He thinks all I had to do to get this job was sneeze and your dad would let me in because why wouldn't he? I'm well known to the Lodge family, and everyone knows Hiram would do anything to please his little girl, including giving her best friend a job!'

'Betty you know that isn't true, you're talented, plain and simple. Know your worth, and ignore all the jealous little fuckers who try to tell you otherwise! Screw them ! Especially Jughead.' Veronica winked much to the annoyance of an increasingly agitated Betty.

'It's hard to ignore someone when you spend practically every moment of the day with them making snide remarks and giving you dirty looks!"

'Oh, B. Do you need me to fire him? Talented or not no-one treats my girl like that, and anyway I thought you'd met before? I'm sure you'd have mentioned a pompous, nonetheless dreamy idiot to me but for some reason you haven't so spill!'

'Ronnie do I really have to talk about him, I just want to spend an hour forgetting about Jughead Jones before he tortures me for the rest of the day. And no. You can't fire him. That's exactly the sort of behaviour that makes him think I'm the golden girl around here!'

'Fine. At least tell me how you know him and then we'll spend the remainder of your lunch break Jughead free, I promise, I'll even let you choose where we go to lunch!'

'Whatever, it's really no big deal. I decided to call at Josie's, you know the Coffee shop between here and my apartment, for breakfast before work this morning and quite literally walked into him. I made him spill his coffee everywhere but he didn't seem to care and was more bothered about catching me than his fingers getting burnt. He said something flirty, winked at me and left. End of story.'

'Swoon.'

Ronnie was ready to make one more comment and drop the subject but Betty interrupted her before she had a chance.

'He was such a Gentleman you know Ron? He was so. damn. nice. and then the next thing I know he's gone from calling me princess and smirking to calling me princess and scowling like I'm the scum of the earth!'

Veronica sighed, this guy had clearly gotten under her best friend's skin.

'Well what exactly did he say B? Did you do anything to upset him?'

'Of course I didn't! I was slightly embarrassed to see him again, asked him if we should go upstairs and then that was it, he went off on one about how he knew who I was and that he'd been through hell and back to get here but what did it matter when I was already the golden girl. He was just so rude!'

'Hmm, he did seem the brooding kind, I think you've found your Mr. Darcy, Elizabeth.' Veronica giggled.

'Veronica it isn't funny. Can we please just drop it, I'm getting hangry.'

'Whatever you say Miss Bennet, now where too?'

Betty pulled herself up, shoving a giggling Veronica slightly as she grabbed her bag and they headed out of the office. As much as working with Veronica made Betty feel anxious, she was so glad to have her best friend with her right now. Ronnie loved to tease, especially when it came to male attention, but she never pushed Betty too far and knew exactly where to stop before crossing the line. As they headed into the lift and out of the building Betty began to feel a little lighter. Ronnie was right. She had to stop caring about what people thought of her. She knew how hard she worked to get here and she didn't need negative people in her life telling her otherwise. No-one had the right to spoil this for her, especially not someone called Jughead!

As Betty turned left out of the door and began to walk up the street Veronica groaned.

'Please tell me we aren't going where I think we're going, You could have picked anywhere in the damn city Betty, all expenses paid and you choose Pop's?'

Pop's Chock'lit Shop was Betty's favourite go too comfort food place. It had a distinctly vintage feel about it, with bright red leather booths, neon signs that glowed 24/7 and a jukebox tucked away into the corner. It was always open, and there was always someone smiling behind the counter, ready to take your order, which made it feel like home. The food was greasy, which made Veronica hate it, but their burgers were to die for and their shakes were dreamy. 

'Veronica,' Betty wined, batting her eye lids at her friend, ' after the morning I've had I need one of Pop's milkshakes! Besides you said I could choose, you should be lucky I didn't drag you into McDonalds.'

Betty laughed, remembering their Freshman Year trip to McDonalds. It was safe to say Veronica had not been impressed.

'Oh god never again. Fine, Pop's it is.'

'Thanks V, your the best.'

'Hmm whatever, you owe me.'

They spent the rest of their short walk in a comfortable silence, enjoying the warmth of the sun on their faces. Betty always worried that the city would me too much for her, that she would feel suffocated by it, at least that's what her mother had warned her, but that wasn't the case at all. Betty loved the city. She loved the contrast of the high rise buildings with the lush green spaces, she loved the hustle and bustle. It hadn't take her long to realise that living in a small town, where everyone knew everyone's business, was much more claustrophobic than the city would ever be. She finally felt like she was breaking free from her mother and able to be her own person. She had a long way to go, but she was on her way and this made Betty incredibly happy. Veronica had watched Betty grow into herself more and more as the years went by. The anxiety attacks became fewer, as did the self harm, and she no longer took the medication. She had grown to love Betty like a sister, and cared for her deeply. One of the reasons Betty was so close to the Lodge family was because of how they had helped her. It wasn't just the counselling they paid for or the right medical help, but it was the way they accepted her for who she was, despite their differences.The Lodge's didn't expect anything from Betty and at times Hiram and Hermione had treated her better than her own parents did. When Betty had told Veronica the things Jughead had said to her, she was furious, although she would never let Betty know that his words had annoyed her as much as they had. Her best friend hadn't had it easy, and she definitely didn't have a free ticket to where she was today. For the sake of Betty and to avoid what Jughead had accused her of becoming the latest office speculation, she would hold her tongue for now. She would however, keep a very close eye on Jughead Jones. If he continued to upset Betty, she'd have no choice but to bite back.

As they reached the glass door, Betty smiled and began rambling about what milkshake she was going to get,

'Vanilla has always been my favourite, but the Strawberry is to die for here I mean if it was socially acceptable for me to have both I totally would but I-'

Walking through the door betty stopped in her tracks, face dropping. Veronica followed her eyes over to a booth in the far right corner of the restaurant. There, tapping away at a laptop was Jughead Jones.

'Shit.' Betty muttered, turning around to face Veroncia, 'come on V, maybe McDonalds isn't such a bad idea after all.'

'Betty no. He doesn't even know we're here, and besides, if my girl wants Pop's, she's having Pop's.'

Betty groaned, protesting as Ronnie pushed her slightly forward, forgetting she had been holding the door open. Without realising what she had done, she released the door from her grasp, not quite expecting the loud noise it made as it closed. Everyone in the diner turned in their direction, including Jughead.

'Ronnie!' Betty hissed, refusing to meet the disgruntled stare of her favourite new co-worker.

'Well he's seen us now B, there's no way we can leave. Come on, how about we get to know Mr. Jones a little bit better.'

'Veronica, no!' Betty began, but it was too late. Ronnie was already making her way towards the booth he was sat in, glancing at Betty over her shoulder as a way of saying 'come on bitch, you're a confident woman now get your ass over here'.

Her heart began to beat fast and for the second time that day, Jughead Jones made Betty clench her fists into tight balls. She had no choice but to follow Veronica and hope for the best.

'Jughead, I guess great minds think alike right? Mind if we join you?'

The look on his face said it all, he minded very much, but Veronica Lodge was not the kind of girl to take no for an answer and before he even had chance to reply, she had sat on the bench opposite him, dropping her bag down on the seat next to her so that Betty had no choice but to sit next to Jughead.  
He tutted under his breath, sliding his laptop across the table and scooting along himself to make way for her. Betty could feel her cheeks burning and she was sure that he was giving Veronica the exact same glare that she was. Completely oblivious to the eyes burning into her, Veronica picked up a menu and surveyed its content, curling her nose up slightly at the lack of health food on there.

'Did you decide which milkshake you're having yet B?'

Put on the spot Betty cleared her throat slightly, attempting to speak.

'Erm no... I haven't had much chance to think about it yet.'

'Jughead what about you,' Ronnie asked, looking up from the menu straight into the steely grey eyes. 'Don't look so horrified, I'm offering to buy you a milkshake not asking you to sign your life away.'

'You really don't have to Miss Lodge,' Jughead replied uncertainly, 'I already had a coffee and some fries.'

'We aren't in work Jughead, call me Veronica, and I insist, what kind of boss would i be if I didn't offer my two new employees a nice cold beverage on such hot day.'

Gulping, Betty could feel Jughead tapping his foot nervously, causing their thighs to touch momentarily. He jerked away as if he was scared of what her touch would do to him, forcing himself closer to the edge of the bench and the window.

'Ok, well if you're sure, Veronica.'

'Of course, now what will it be.'

'Well,' Jughead began, glancing at his screen slightly before he continued, 'I'm usually a Vanilla kinda guy but Pop's does the best Strawberry Milkshakes so I guess I'll go with strawberry.'

Veronica stifled a laugh, looking in Betty's direction, 'Interesting,' she mused, as Jughead knitted his eyebrows in confusion. Betty kicked her under the table, giving her a look of warning just as the waitress arrived to take their order.

'Hi, yes can I get two Strawberry Milkshakes for these two, a Burger for my friend here, and a Chicken Caesar salad with a skinny decaf latte for me please.'

Flicking her pen back into her pocket, the woman nodded at Veronica and smiled before heading back to the counter, leaving the trio in silence. She wondered if the others could sense the awkwardness of this whole scenario like she could. Out of the corner of her eye, Betty could see Jughead looking at her, while Ronnie tapped away on her phone. She suddenly became very aware that her nails were still digging into her palms and that Jughead had noticed, an unreadable expression on his face. She quickly unravelled them, placing her hands flat on her thighs and hoping he hadn't seen the blood in the process. The last thing she needed was him telling everyone how much of a freak she was as well as The Golden Girl. She glanced around the room, making note of the many families and couples enjoying Ice-cream sundaes, eyes alight with happiness as they slowly swayed to the beat of the jukebox before looking back at Veronica and then Jughead. A word document was open on his laptop, and before she could make out what exactly he was writing he caught her reflection in the window, slamming the lid down and pushing it to one side. The sudden movement made Betty jump and Ronnie looked up from her twitter feed, giving him a questioning glance. Noticing the nervous look on Betty's face, she locked her phone and leant forwards, facing Jughead head on.

'So, how long have you been in the city Jughead?' 

Surprised that she was talking to him Jughead reached to fiddle with the beanie that covered his curls.

'I moved here after graduation, so a couple of months, there was nothing really worth me going back home for.'

'and where is home for you?'

Jughead leaned back in the booth, shifting uncomfortably at Veronica's probing questions. Betty had been subjected to the same thing when they first met, and she knew just how persuasive Ronnie was. No matter how hard you tried not too, you'd end up answering every single one of her questions, regardless of how much they pried.

' A trailer park on the Southside of a small town, not far out of New York. I don't expect you to know it though, Riverdale?' 

Betty gasped. This had to be some kind of sick joke. He must've found out where she was from and made this up just to torment her. Veronica looked at Betty, her eyes wide, before quickly looking back at Jughead with a look of intrigue. 

'I know Riverdale.' She said bluntly, surprising the boy that sat across from her.

'Wow. It's not the kind of place I'd expect someone like you to ever know. I'm more surprised you aren't recoiling from the knowledge that I'm trailer trash.' he snorted. His tone wasn't aggressive, it was playful if anything. Jughead had obviously been subjected to a lot of prejudice throughout his life and had learned to deal with it by humouring his background.

'I'm not sure what you mean Jughead.' Veronica replied, looking over at Betty, searching her face for some sort of acknowledgment. The two girls looked at each other, having a silent conversation with their eyes for a few seconds before Jughead noticed something was off. Looking between Betty and Veronica he began to get frustrated. Something was going on between them and it was obviously about him. He wished he'd kept his mouth shut, he should have learned in college that people don't take too kindly to small-town trailer-park trash, especially not people like Veronica Lodge. He settled on Betty's face, noticing how pale she had become and the sad, confused look in her eyes. Those eyes. He could get lost in the green orbs if he stared too long. Maybe that morning he had considered it, but the revelation that she was Veronica Lodge's best friend soon put a stop to that. No matter how pretty her eyes were, he had principals.

'Am I missing something? Are you regretting joining me now you know about my humble beginnings?' He said, directing his words at Veronica but still not taking his eyes off of Betty. She shook her head slowly, desperately searching for something in Veronica's eyes, begging her to stop to no avail.

'Betty's from Riverdale.'

'What?'

He looked at the blonde girl, searching for some kind of confirmation, she looked back at him, meeting his eyes.

'Yeah, I'm from the Northside though.' She answered, shakily. He wasn't sure how long they sat like that, staring at each other, but it was long enough that her eyes softened and the corners of her mouth began to peak into a small smile. 

'This just keeps getting better.' Veronica chimed in, causing him to pull his eyes away from Betty's. He needed to pull himself together. Not only was she the over-entitled type of opportunity-just-falls-into-my-lap sorority girl, she was also from the Northside. He wondered how many times they'd crossed paths without even realising, if they had at all. The North and South sides of Riverdale tended to keep to themselves though, so he doubted it. Thankfully, the waitress chose that moment to bring them their drinks and food, putting an end to the current conversation.

The remainder of their time in Pop's was spent mainly listening to Veronica talk about trivial or materialistic matters that made Jughead's blood boil. He really hated rich girls, but what he hated even more was the fact that this one was his boss. There was no escaping her and he definitely couldn't make any snarky comments for fear he would lose his job. He had worked so hard to get here, and there was no way he was going to let someone like Veronica Lodge ruin it for him. The time passed quickly, and soon, Veronica was paying the bill and getting ready to leave. He walked back to Lodge Tower with a cigarette in his hand, trailing behind the two women as they talked. Veronica had given him no choice but to walk with them, and he felt incredibly uncomfortable doing so, but it gave him chance to survey them. They were both beautiful, anyone could see that, and it became particularly obvious from the number of men that stared longingly at them as they walked by. Veronica knew she was beautiful, sexy even. The way she walked, talked, dressed and the way she commanded a room when she walked in made her a force to be reckoned with. He couldn't deny that she was attractive, but it didn't overshadow his disdain for people like her. Betty on the other hand seemed nothing like her friend, and it left him wondering how they'd ever become so close in the first place. She seemed reserved and anxious, and definitely didn't flaunt her sexuality like Veronica did, but she was beautiful, to him she was more beautiful than most women he had met in his twenty-two years. It didn't change anything though. Beautiful or not, he had made his bed when it came to his opinion of Betty. She'd had it easy in life, and probably spent it laughing at people like him. At least Veronica Lodge admitted that her class and connections made things easy for her, at least she was open about who she really was. Betty on the other hand lied about it, to herself and everyone else, and that made her worse. Betty Cooper was a wolf in sheep's clothing and he would be damned if she became the golden girl at Lodge Industries as easily as she had done the rest of her life. She worked with Jughead now, and Jughead Jones was not one to give up his dream so easily, especially not when he'd worked so hard to get there.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I can't believe I've written Chapter Two already! I'm never this quick with writing and updating but this idea just has me hooked. I hope you enjoyed it. Just to let you know that i know absolutely nothing about America so sorry if I get anything wrong. Also, I wasn't originally going to have both Betty and Jughead from Riverdale but as I was writing it just seemed to work and add an extra layer to Jughead's vendetta against a complete stranger. Feedback is much appreciated, and i'm sorry if the formatting isn't great, my laptop is broken at the minute so a lot of my writing is from my phone and ao3 likes to be difficult.


	3. Chapter 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So I'm not 100% happy with this chapter, I kept swapping and changing bits around and writing and rewriting it to the point I just wanted to post it and continue with the rest of the story so I hope it's turned out ok. Committing to slow burn is really biting me in the ass because all I wanna do is get to the fluffy smutty stuff but I can't just yet. Although things will start to get more interesting soon, and bughead will start moving from enemies to friends! I guess this is kind of a filler chapter of sorts but I wanted to introduce a few characters and relationships and it's kind of important for these sorts of things to happen in order for the plot to continue and not feel too jumpy. Anyway I hope you like it, and I'm sorry it took so long. Comments and Kudos are appreciated and if anyone can tell me how the hell to put italics into ao3 I will forever be in your debt. As an English graduate, the book titles in this chapter that aren't in italics are driving me insane! Xx

The rest of the week continued pretty much how the first day had gone. Betty, despite everything, couldn't help but try to be nice to Jughead. Yes he was arrogant, and no she didn't deserve to be treated like that, but there was obviously a reason for his behaviour. Just because he had been quick to judge her life doesn't mean she was going to do the same to him. After all, if she had to work with Jughead five days a week she had to at least try and make it amicable between them. They had been paired together for most of their tasks during the first week so that they could get used to the mechanics of their role with some form of moral support. Though his snide remarks grew fewer, it didn't mean Jughead became friendlier towards Betty. In fact, he barely said two words to her unless it was completely necessary but at least it was better than their first day. Since their lunch with Veronica at Pop's, Betty couldn't help but notice he looked at her differently. His eyes were still cold and unwelcoming but now they stared at her curiously. When they parted ways with Veronica, Betty made a joke about how they had both had lunch with the boss after all, hoping it would thaw the atmosphere between them. He snorted at her remark, and she was sure when he looked at her, he was trying very hard not to laugh, but after a slight smirk it was as though he realised who he was talking to and where he was. It didn't take him long to mutter something about the copy room and disappear. By the time Friday came around Betty was glad to have a break from him. She was enjoying her job but she hoped that they could start working on a more independent basis soon, the awkwardness between them was driving her insane and she couldn't shake the feeling that he was constantly watching her, waiting for her to do something wrong and mess up.

After her stressful week Betty decided to spend the weekend curled up on her sofa with a tub of Ben and Jerry's binge watching Pretty Little Liars on Netflix, ignoring Veronica's pleas to go shopping. By the time she entered the office on Monday morning, she felt refreshed. Ethel had returned from her family emergency, which meant Betty and Jughead now spent their time taking it in turns to work with her rather than each other. Ethel was a fairly tall girl with broad shoulders and red cheeks. She was absolutely lovely, and smiled constantly. If she had detected any sort of atmosphere between her two colleagues she completely ignored it, dragging them both to a table with her at lunchtime. Like Betty, Ethel had moved to the city from a small town and didn't really know anyone there, so she was dead set on making friends out of Betty and Jughead. When they had first been introduced, their supervisor Marie had asked Ethel to shadow Betty, leaving Jughead to work alone. While Betty didn't really mind helping Ethel or the fact that Jughead would be alone, something lurched inside the bottom of her stomach. At the news that Betty had been chosen to help Ethel, Jughead had rolled his eyes and muttered under his breath. Of course he would think this was another example of Betty being the favourite, and she could sympathise with him. He had just as much right to help Ethel as she did, and he could probably assist in somethings better than she could, after all, they had both come from different backgrounds with different interests when it came to the publishing world. As much as part of her thought Jughead deserved to feel second best for the way he'd treated her, Betty Cooper had never been a spiteful person, and she certainly wasn't about to start now. Although her reasonings were partly selfish, after all, maybe it would get Jughead off her back a little if she gave him some responsibility, she really did think it would be unfair if Jughead didn't get to help Ethel too. He was obviously talented, hence why he had been hired, and she had seen it first hand working with him. As Marie finished their briefing and turned on her heel, her brown ponytail swishing behind her, Betty hurried after her.

'Marie, hi erm sorry but I was wondering if maybe Ethel should spend some time with both Jughead and I instead of just me? I know we're all fairly new here and it shouldn't take Ethel long to get the hang of things but everyone has their strengths and weaknesses, and working with Jughead last week showed me that while we're both here to do the same job, we both have very different but equally effective approaches to the task at hand. I really think it would help Ethel to have bothof us help her, especially seeing as we're working on different things this week.'

'That all sounds very well Miss Cooper, but even though you're new, I can't afford to have all three of you off task this week, we have deadlines to meet.'

'Of course, I was thinking maybe she could spend the mornings with me and the afternoons with Jughead or vice versa?'

Marie surveyed the girl in front of her. Most people knew who Betty Cooper was, and most of them were dubious about her employment. It was all too easy to assume that Betty had been employed simply because of her connections to the Lodge family, however, after her first week she had already impressed a lot of the team and they were sold on her. She had ambition, talent and passion and she was dedicated the her job. She was already picking things up, and using her initiative to benefit the company. Marie was impressed. Now, the blonde stood in front of her, confident and smiling and she couldn't say no to her.

'Ok Betty, let's give it a go.'

Marie turned to where Jughead and Ethel stood, looking at the two women with confusion.

'Jughead, Ethel is going to work with Betty this morning and then she'll join you this afternoon ok? Miss Cooper thinks that you have something to give that she might not and that Ethel would benefit more if you both worked with her. We'll discuss how things are going at the end of the day and see how we go from there.'

Betty looked at Ethel who smiled, eyes bright, and then over to Jughead he was looking back at her but she couldn't read his face.

'Ok Marie, sounds good. I'll meet you after lunch Ethel.' Jughead said, heading towards his desk.

Of course, after lunch wasn't good enough for Ethel, and that's why Betty was now sat opposite Jughead at a small table in the buzzing canteen of Lodge Industries. His laptop sat open on the table in front of him, but remained untouched. Betty felt strangely guilty. She was beginning to think that Jughead intended to use his lunch hour to write, but wasn't being as successful as he had hoped. It wasn't unusual for those in publishing to have an interest in writing too, she herself had always enjoyed journalism, and non-fiction writing, but she did occasionally write a short story or two. Somehow, Jughead was different. He seemed dedicated to it, more so than anyone else she had ever met.

When her and Ethel had entered the large food hall, it hadn't taken long for her new colleague to zone in on the beanie wearing boy that sat in the far corner alone. His set up was similar to what it had been when Veronica had interupted him on their first day, and she wondered whether or not he had avoided Pop's since their encounter because of her. After all, she'd made a point to avoid Josie's on her way to work since the morning she had quite literally bumped into him there so she really wasn't one to judge, if anything she could sympathise. Unlike Veronica, Ethel had absolutely no idea about the tension between Betty and Jughead and immediately made a bee-line for where he sat, leaving Betty lingering in the doorway. As Ethel reached the table, she turned around, summoning Betty to her. Embarassed at how ridiculously uncomfortable she felt, and the curious look Jughead was sending her way, she quickly sent them a little wave before pointing over to the Coffee counter to signal that she would join them after she had purchased a drink. As she stood in the queue, Betty couldn't help but look over at her colleagues. It was strange to see Jughead talking so animatedly and without the signature scowl he seemed to wear whenever she was around. It was easy to forget that it was just her he had a vendetta against, and not the whole world, but then she remembered just how nice he'd been when she had originally met him. He had stopped tapping away at his laptop, setting it slightly aside, but still keeping it open as Ethel approached the table and proceeded to sit down on the chair diagonal to him. Betty remembered how quickly he had closed his laptop when she had tried looking at his writing in Pop's and began to wonder what sort of things Jughead Jones would write about. Veronica had been right about one thing, he was very brooding, but she couldn't quite determine yet whether he was more of a Heathcliff or a Mr. Darcy, deciding that if his writing wasn't at least a tiny bit gothic she would be extremely disappointed. Paying for her chocolate muffin and Mixed Berry smoothie, Betty made her way over to the table and realised she was faced with a choice of whether or not it was better to sit next to Jughead or across from him. Deciding that the latter would hopefully avoid any awkward body contact like before Betty shuffled past Ethel and took the seat next to her. At least this way, the privacy of his writing wouldn't feel threatened either.

'Hey Betty, what've you got? Oooo a smoothie! Now that has got me thinking. Maybe I'll get one too.' Ethel rambled, not pausing to let Betty answer her before filling in the gaps.

'I was just asking Jughead here what he was writing, apparently he's a crime sorta guy.' Ethel continued, wiggling her eyebrows in a strange, unexplained way. 'Maybe it'll be the next Gone Girl or The Girl on the Train, right Betts?'

Betty couldn't help but let out a small giggle and internally approved of his genre of choice. The look on Jughead's face said it all.

'Yeah of course Ethel,' she said teasingly, 'I'm sure that's exactly what Jug has in mind. Although, I've always been more of a true crime girl myself.'

'Yeah sorry Ethel, my writings more In Cold Blood.' Jughead said, almost apologetically. ' Although not one-hundred percent non-fiction.' he added.

'Well, either way, you'll have to let us read it some time Jug, I mean we're all publishers here, who best to edit your work right?'

'Sure Ethel, although it really isn't anywhere near ready for anyone's eyes but mine at the moment, thanks anyway though.'

'Course. So, what've we got planned this afternoon?'

When they met with Marie at the end of the day she was very impressed with how they were all getting on and agreed to let them continue with the rotation for the rest of the week, Ethel with Betty in the morning and Jughead in the afternoon. Therefore, then next four lunchtimes were spent exactly as the first had been, with Ethel having conversations with both Jughead and Betty but neither really addressing the other directly. It was definitely a strange situation, and much to Ethel's disappointment both of her colleagues declined after work drinks on Friday, claiming to have plans. As much as Betty liked Ethel, it was awkward enough spending time with Jughead at work never mind about outside of it, and her claim to having plans wasn't exactly a lie. Veronica had mentioned something about cocktails at her place seeing as Betty hadn't spent lunch with her this week.

A few cocktails at Veronica's turned into lots of cocktails at Veronica's along with a couple of shots and two Vodka Cranberry's leaving Betty feeling extremely sensitive when she woke up at lunchtime on Saturday morning to a missed call and a text from her mother.

'Elizabeth,', it read, ' I hope your first two weeks of work went well and you're having a productive weekend. I noticed you haven't used the gym membership I bought you yet, don't forget to register, you were starting to look a littler chubby the last time you visited. Call me in the week, Mom.'

Betty groaned as she forced herself out of bed. Alice Cooper had always been the overbearing, no love lost kind of mother, but since Polly had married Jason, Betty had left for University and their father had died, she had gotten much worse. She sighed as her thoughts drifted to Hal Cooper. She couldn't think about him and the whole situation, not today. Moving here was meant to be a clean break for her, a way of escaping the memory of what happened. She had come so far with her mental health, the last thing she needed was a relapse, especially when she had people like Jughead Jones on her back. If he knew about her problems he'd definitely think Hiram had given her the job as a favour. Even her mother doubted her ability to live and work in the city for a publishing house as big as the Lodge's, so other people definitely would.

Deciding that the best thing she could do to help clear her mind was to take a nice hot shower and then head out for a run, Betty walked out of her room into the kitchen to get a glass of water and some aspirin, downing them both in seconds before taking a bite out of an apple that was in the fruit bowl. After she'd sent Veronica a quick text to thank her for the night before, replied to her mother and finished her breakfast, Betty grabbed a towel off the radiator and made her way to the bathroom. Undressing, she surveyed herself in the mirror making note of the mascara stains around her eyes that she definitely needed to take care of in the shower. As she was about to open Spotify on her phone and connect it to the bluetooth shower speaker Polly had got her as a Christmas gift, a small ping indicated that Veronica had tagged her in something on Instagram.

'Oh God,' she mumbled, debating whether or not check it before locking her phone and placing it on the counter. It was probably a picture from last night, and she knew Ronnie would never post anything that didn't make her look gorgeous but that didn't mean Betty would look ok in it too. As she turned on the shower and closed the cubicle door a small sigh of pleasure escaped from Betty's lips, letting the warmth of the water and the song lyrics that drifted amongst the steam envelope her body. By the time she had finished massaging her scalp and gliding a razor over her legs she had no idea how long she'd been in there but had a sudden need to get out of the house. Stepping out of the shower, Betty quickly dried herself before throwing on her favourite pair of yoga pants, and a sports bra. She rubbed her hair dry with the towel before throwing it up into a slightly damp ponytail and squeezed some moisturiser onto her skin. Her mother would be horrified at the thought of her daughter going out like this: completely bare faced, hair still wet and with her mid-rif out but she honestly couldn't care less. Alice Cooper wasn't here and was certainly not in control of Betty's life anymore she thought, placing her earphones in her ears, and locking the door behind her as she left the apartment.

The streets were busy, but unlike during the week when they were filled with hard-faced, suit clad business men and women fighting their way through the crowds, today it was families that made up the sea of people. The same people who graced the streets in heels and briefcases during the week were now in jeans and t shirts, laughing and joking. A lovers arm was draped protectively over their shoulder while bright eyed children with ice-creams in their hand, and all over their faces, walked by their side. Betty never failed to be surprised by how the city could transform and morph so quickly, how two seemingly completely separate spheres could so easily co-exist. It made her happy seeing it this way, and she couldn't help but think of her niece and nephew, Beth and Jay Jay. When Polly had the twins it wasn't long until she moved in with Jason at Thornhill. Getting away from Alice Cooper had been Polly's top priority and the Blossom's had given them their own private wing to live in. Polly finished school from home, and decided to put off College for a while, supporting Jason instead. When he graduated two years ago, they moved to New York where Jason had started his own, very successful law firm. The twins had started school a year ago, and so had Polly, taking part time classes at NYU so she could become a teacher. She spoke to them on facetime as often as she could and was shocked everytime by how much Jay Jay had grown or how long Beth's hair was now but it wasn't the same as seeing them in person and she couldn't wait to see them at Christmas.

Betty's thoughts were broken by a splash of rain on her bare shoulder and she realised she had been running longer than she originally thought. It had been beautiful when she left the house but now the sky was dark and the heaven's opened. People scrambled into cabs or shops for shelter wherever she looked and it took her a second to register that she was absolutely soaking wet. Surveying her surroundings, she noticed that she was only a block away from Josie's Coffee shop and decided it was a better option than running home, plus she could really do with a hot drink. She'd taken coffee from home ever since her first day at Lodge Industries out of fear she might bump into a certain dark haired colleague of hers. It was the weekend though, and everything changed on weekends. The world must really have a vendetta against her if he had chosen this exact moment and exact place to take shelter from the rain too. A niggle at the back of her mind and in the pit of her stomach told her that knowing her luck it would probably happen, but by now the streets were empty and water was dripping from her nose. She had goosebumps all over her skin and if she didn't get inside soon she would most definitely catch a cold.

When she entered the coffee shop, it was packed full of like minded people all trying to warm up and escape the sudden outburst of rain. The windows were steamed up and every table was taken. Dammit, she thought, heading to the back of the queue to order herself a drink. At this rate she might have to brave the weather and take the drink go. Thankfully it didn't take too long for her to reach the counter, and she was quite quickly warming up.

'Hi Josie,' she smiled brightly at the owner, 'Can I have a hot chocolate please?'

'Hey Betty, of course you can! Cream and marshmallows too?'

'God yes!'

As she handed over the money, she caught sight of herself in the mirror behind the coffee machines. She looked like a drowned rat, water was dripping from every part of her body.

'Hey Josie, I'm just heading to the bathroom to dry off a bit. Don't let anyone take my drink.'

'Sure thing Hun.'

Betty had met Josie on her first day in the city. After a stressful day moving into her apartment she had found her way to the coffee shop, laptop in tow, and spent a good few hours trying to organise her life. Josie lived three floors above her, and having seen the ordeal that Betty had trying to get her couch up the stairs that morning, she had given her a coffee on the house. Although they didn't see each other unless it was in the hall of their building or at the cafe, Betty still considered Josie to be more than an acquaintance and was often grateful to know someone other than Veronica. As she slipped into the bathroom, Betty failed to notice a pair of blue eyes fixed directly on her. Jughead was taken aback when he first noticed her and almost didn't recognise her. Her hair was completely soaked, making it darker than usual and small flyaways ruined her usually very neat ponytail. She had no make-up on, but still managed to look remarkably fresh faced, reminding him yet again just how beautiful she was. While her work outfits were complimentary of her appearance and often accentuated her curves he wasn't prepared to see so much skin and, much to his own annoyance, he couldn't help but notice the droplets of water that ran down into her cleavage. Try as he might, Jughead could not seem to avoid her, or his attraction to her and it was making his work days very difficult. Thankfully, after that first week, they no longer had to work together, but Ethel had insisted on sitting with him at lunch every day that week, dragging Betty along with her. After spending an hour sat across from her, his afternoons were filled with visions of golden hair and green eyes. The more she talked, the more she disclosed about her interests, the harder it became for him to remain so hateful towards her, especially when she asked Marie to let him help Ethel too. So far he had managed to keep up his indignation towards her, and every time she popped into his mind, he thought of all the reasons he vowed to stay away from her. Trying to distract himself Jughead checked his phone and saw a message from his best friend, Archie.

'Sorry Dude, running late, will be there in a few.' it said.

Of course Archie was running late when he wanted to leave this place the most. He really didn't want to see her, not today. Of course, Jughead considered standing outside and waiting for his friend but it was still raining and there was still a chance Betty would see him, at this rate she wouldn't get a table. Another message from Archie quickly followed the first.

'P.S, your boss is so hot, check instagram.'

Grimacing at his best friend's new found obsession with Veronica Lodge, Jughead hesitantly opened his instagram feed. He should not indulge Archie, especially not when she was his boss, but it always intrigued him to look at the social media posts of the rich and famous, the ones who had it easy. It made him laugh really, and reminded him of why he was so against those sorts of people. Typing Veronica's name into the search bar, and clicking on her profile Jughead felt his breath catch in his throat. There, in all her angelic glory, was Betty Cooper. The photo was of Veronica on a balcony, cocktail in hand. Behind her, lounged out on a bench was the blonde haired girl, a book face down in her lap and smile on her lips. The lights of the city in the background were blurry and beautiful on her skin and he zoomed into her lap.

'Fuck.' he muttered as he placed the phone down on the table. She was reading In Cold Blood. Of all the books in the world. It was suspiciously close to their lunchtime conversation about it. She had said she liked true crime, so it was plausible she had read it before, but either way, she was reading it now. As he looked around the room he realised she hadn't returned from the bathroom yet, though her hot chocolate sat on the side waiting. The way she shivered as she spoke to Josie flashed through his mind as he noticed there was no where for her to sit. Fuck it. As soon as Archie got here he would make his friend turn straight back around and find somewhere else to drink anyway so what harm could it do if he offered her a seat? He might even be gone before she gets back anyway, he hoped rather optimistically , knowing that when Archie Andrews said he's be a few minutes it was probably more like ten. Jughead stood up and headed over to where Josie stood, smiling at her.

'Hey this drinks Betty's right?'

The woman nodded at him suspiciously.

'I work with her at Lodge Publishing House and there's no other seats so I'm just gunna take it over to my table in the corner,' he said, pointing in the direction of his laptop, ' will you tell her when she comes back?'

'Sure.' Josie said hesitantly, handing him the mug and watching him sit back down.

When Betty left the bathroom to find Josie grinning at her like a cheshire cat she was extremely confused.

'Jose, I thought you said you wouldn't let anyone steal my drink?'

'I did. Technically it isn't stolen. It's with your co-worker over there. Betty Cooper why haven't you told me you work with such a hottie.'

Betty's eyes followed where Josie was pointing until she saw none other than Jughead Jones.

'Urgh. Josie it really isn't anything like that, I'll explain another time ok.'

'You better Betty or I'll come looking for you. Don't forget, I knew where you live.' Josie chuckled, putting on her best creepy voice.

Betty was so confused. Why the hell would Jughead Jones ask her to sit with him? Swallowing hard she walked over to his table. He was completely engrossed in his phone and it wasn't until she was behind him that she recognised Veronica's face on the screen. Betty gasped, seeing herself in the background, causing Jughead to jump and drop the phone on the table, quickly reaching to lock the screen when he realised who it was.

'Hi Betty, erm, I saw you come in and there was no tables and you looked like shit no offence but I thought you'd rather have a table than go back outside in the rain so yeah.'

Jughead's cheeks were red as she sat opposite him.

'Thanks Jughead, especially the part about me looking like shit. Really appreciate it.' 

Jughead knew that she had looked the complete opposite of shit but he was so flustered that she had caught him looking at the photo it had just come out. Besides, at least he was being consistantly rude to her and not letting on that he thought she was hot. The last thing he needed was that to go to her head.

'So about me looking at that photo... I'm not stalking you or Veronica or anything, it just came up on my feed because a friend of mine liked it and I couldn't avoid it really, I didn't have much choice-'

Betty stared at him, opening her mouth as if she wanted to say something before closing it again when a tall and muscly ginger boy approached them.

'Hey Jug, sorry I'm late I-'

Archie Andrews stopped in his tracks completely dumbfounded at the sight in front of him. Jughead Jones was with a girl. A beautiful girl at that. Raising his eyeborws at his friend, Archie reached his hand out to Betty.

'Hi, I'm Archie Andrews, Jughead's best friend and roomate. Sorry I didn't realise he was busy, I would've been even later if I'd have known.' he chuckled.

Before Betty could return the introduction, Jughead interupted her.

'Archie this is Betty Cooper from work.'

Betty scowled at the dark-haired boy, not taking too kindly to him answering for her.

'Nice to meet you Archie. Don't worry you aren't interrupting anything, Jug just kindly offered me a seat because he thought I looked like shit and needed it.' she smiled.

Archie shot his friend a look of disapointment that screamed 'Dude what the hell.' but Jughead ignored him and stood up, never once looking Betty in the eye.

'Right, nice to see you Betty, but we've got to go or we'll be late Come on Arch.'

'Wait what? I haven't had a drink yet? Where are we going?'

Jughead stared at him as he put his jacket on before turning and walking towards the exit.

Archie watched as his best friend left the Coffee Shop and looked at Betty sheepishly.

'Erm it was nice to meet you Betty... bye.'

It wasn't until Jughead had rounded the corner that Archie managed to catch up with him.

'DUDE! What the hell? You made me come back out in the rain! And that's no way to treat a beautiful girl, you've got no chance with her now!'

'Shut up Archie, I'm not interested.'

'Jug what is going on? You're acting so weird recently.'

Jughead snorted.

'Archie leave it. I'm weird. I'm a weirdo. We all knew that already. Now let's go home and order pizza.'

'But-'

'Archie.'

Jughead silenced his best friend, wishing the ground would swallow him up.

'Fine Jug. But you've got some explaining to do when we get that pizza.'


	4. Chapter 4

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> It has been so long since I last updated and I hate myself for it! Life just got a little bit hectic and I lost all creativity and motivation to write. I'm sorry if this chapter sucks or if there's any mistakes, I just suddenly felt a need to write and had to go with the flow. I hope you enjoy, I'm really looking forward to the next few chapters.

Betty stared in disbelief, surveying the red head as he quickly followed his friend out of the door and away from her line of sight. What the hell just happened? From Jughead's actions and Archie's words, it was all too clear that they weren't in fact running late for anything, so why had Jughead bolted? Of course it was because of her, it had to be. Something about Jughead made her skin itch. She wanted to know more about him, everything she could, no matter how much she should want to get away from him. It was weird knowing that this person she worked with grew up a stone's throw away from her and she didn't know anything about him, or at least not that she could remember. Yet even when they were strangers, Betty felt strangely drawn to Jughead, as if somewhere in the back of her mind, masked by psychological trauma and years of therapy, he was there. Maybe it was just his name she'd heard around town, or a brief glimpse of his face she'd caught in the street, but she was sure he was in there somewhere. His friend bugged her too. It didn't come to mind straight away, she was too busy being distracted by Jughead's weirdness to notice, but now that she replayed the events she was almost certain that Archie was from Riverdale too. Other than the Blossoms there weren't many other gingers in the town, so coming across one who wasn't related to Cheryl and Jason would be enough to make that person stick. He definitely wasn't from the Northside though, and he seemed slightly older than her and Jughead placing him around the same age as Polly. If he'd attended Riverdale High then she was almost certain that her sister or the Blossom twins would have hung around with him. He was the popular type who would have fit in just fine with them. Taking a sip of her hot chocolate Betty continued thinking about the two men who just left her. They were a strange combination of people. Just from the way he looked and acted, she could tell Archie was a Jock through and through, but Jughead, although attractive and cocky, seemed like he'd have been lost in that sort of crowd, so the two of them being friends was a mind-boggling concept. As she savoured a clump of cream from her hot chocolate, Betty noticed that it was now brightening up outside, and the coffee shop had emptied off while she had been busy thinking. Of course, years of mental health issues and a mother like Alice Cooper telling her she was crazy had meant that Betty didnt trust her mind. She could be completely imagining the crawling under her skin whenever she looked or even thought about Jughead, and she could definitely be imagining that Archie was from Riverdale too. Despite this, she couldn't shake the feeling, it was rooted in the pit of her stomach and after how Jughead had acted she had to know more about the two. In less than twenty-four hours, she would be back at Lodge Industries, faced with the awkwardness of seeing Jughead and she couldn't do that without at least knowing a little bit more about him and so Betty Cooper, in the most un-ladylike and 'un-Alice Cooper approved' fashion, gulped down the remainder of her drink in one long motion, wiped her mouth on her forearm, and hurried out of the door, jogging up the street towards her apartment. 

The first thing Betty did when she entered her living room was grab her laptop from the coffee table and fling her self down on the sofa. She had been an investigative Journalist once upon a time in High School and she was not going to let those skills go to waste. As the loading animation appeared on the screen in front of her, Betty grabbed her phone and opened her chat with Cheryl. A picture of the two of them smiling together, cheeks touching and eyes glazed by the effects of one to many glasses of champagne was in the top left hand corner of the screen. It had been taken on New Years Eve, at the Blossom's annual party. When the clock struck twelve, Betty and Cheryl were stood together at the edge of the room, observing the scene in front of them, Most of the usually stuck up guests that ran with the Blossom's had errupted into auld lang syne. Polly and Jason had snuck off onto the balcony and Penelope Blossom was too busy sharing another bottle of extremely expensive champagne with Alice Cooper to pay attention to the underage Blossom relatives swiping a bottle of whisky from the cabinet. The relationship between the Blossomscand the Coopers was complex and an unusual friendship surfaced between the two of them since they both lost their husbands, of course alcohol also had to be involved to keep the peace. Betty wondered what her father or Clifford Blossom would have to say if they saw their families laughing together and having fun. It was at this moment that Cheryl insisted on taking a photograph with her kind of cousin to mark the occassion. Not only were Betty, Polly, Cheryl and her brother Jason third cousins, but Polly was also Cheryl's sister in law, and Betty was Jason's when the two of them married and had twins. Unfortunately, it wasn't until after Polly fell pregnant and the two were madly in love that she and Jason discovered they were even related (long story short, Grandpappy Blossom not only killed Grandpappy Cooper, but they were brothers too hence why there was a weird rivalry bettween the families) and although technically it was incest, it wasn't illegal and so it was just accepted. Smiling at the memory of that night, Betty began to type a message.

'Hey Cher, hope life at Thornhill is good ;) Can you call me? I have a question to ask plus I miss you xoxo'

As she pressed send and placed her phone down on her lap, Betty opened google and typed 'Jughead Jones Riverdale' into the search engine. She frowned when nothing of relevance came up before deleting the words and retyping 'Forsythe Jones Riverdale'. Of course google wouldn't know a person based on nicknames, and she couldn't believed she'd even done that, but in all honesty, it was easy to forget that Jughead wasn't his real name. The first article to appear in the results made her mouth drop. It had been written by her father, for the Riverdale Register only a few months before he had died, but it was the headline than shocked her the most.

PROMINENT MEMBER OF THE SOUTH SIDE SERPENTS, FORSYTHE PENDLETON JONES II, ARRESTED ON CHARGES INCLUDING KIDNAP, ATTEMPTED MURDER AND DRUG RELATED OFFENCES

Betty remembered it happening. It was towards the end of her first year at Berkeley and her mother had been complaining for weeks about the state of affairs in Riverdale. People, especially young people, seemed to be overdosing left, right and centre, and a popular Junior from Riverdale High had gone missing, last seen walking down Sweetwater River towards the Southside. When the news finally broke that the Serpents had been involved, as Alice had suspected, and arrests were being made her mother was thrilled. At that point, Betty was swamped with assignments and was suffering with her Mental Health as she started on new medication. She barely listened to her mother's calls because she tried to distance herself her hometown and focus on healing herself after finally escaping her suffocating family life. She most definitely did not read the Riverdale Register, so her knowledge of the incident was sparse. Swallowing hard, Betty opened the article and began to read all about Forsythe Pendleton Jones II, aged 39 and his crimes. This was Jughead's father. As if the name wasn't enough to go, the photograph on the screen in front of her stared at her with the same icy blue eyes as the beanie-clad boy. Scanning her father's words, Betty learnt that Forsythe had been involved with the serpents for years, had spent minor sentences in jail before and that he was an alcoholic. Betty winced at the words on the page. This was extremely personal. Hal had even mentioned that Gladys Jones had taken her daughter and left Riverdale four years before causing Forsythe to spiral. 

'Shit.' , Betty thought as she let the words sink in. So this is what Jughead Jones had dealt with in his life. No wonder he was like he was. Staring at the screen for a few moments, Betty was brought out of her thoughts by the sound of her ringtone. As she picked up her phone and slid her finger across the screen to answer it, Cheryl's face appeared in front of her. Her long, red hair fell straight down either side of her face and her bright red lips were positioned in a perfect pout. 

'Betty!', she screeched, clearly happy to see the blonde girl, 'I miss you too!' 

Betty would never get over how weird it was to have Cheryl Blossom as a friend. At Riverdale High, Head Cheerleader, Head Diva and Head Bitch Cheryl had made Betty's life hell, constantly teasing her and rejecting her from the cheer-squad once because of her weight. Things got slightly better when Cheryl befriended Polly, and again when Polly began to date Cheryl's beloved twin Jason, falling pregnant in her Senior Year with his babies, but when Polly and Jason weren't around, Cheryl was still awful to Betty. It wasn't until Cheryl graduated from High School and the twins were born that things started to really improve. Having a niece and a nephew that she shared with Betty managed to melt the ice that guarded Cheryl's heart a little and so when Clifford Blossom died, Cheryl turned to Betty, coming to stay with her for a few days at Berkeley while she grieved. In return, when Hal died, Cheryl was there for Betty when shen felt at her loneliest and since then they only got closer. Betty smiled at the girl on the screen in front of her. 

'Hi Cheryl! Thanks for ringing me! How are you?' 

'I'm good, how's life in the city? Is Veronica treating you well at Lodge Industries?' 

Betty rolled her eyes at the mention of her best friend. Cheryl and Veronica had shared a kiss when Cheryl stayed with them after Clifford died. There was something between them, and Betty would love nothing more than the two of them to be happy together, but so far all they did was like each other's Instagram posts, ask Betty about each other rather unsubtly, and meet up to have sex every time they happened to be near each other.

'It's ok, and yes she's a great boss, although technically Hiram's my boss not Veronica. I'll let her know you were asking about her though.', she winked at the fiery-haired girl. As usual Cheryl ignored her remark. 

' So what do you want to ask me? If it's love or sex related advice regarding a male ask V, you know I'm strictly female so I'll be no help... although please do tell if there's a hottie on little Betty Cooper's mind.' 

'Cheryl! I guess it is about a boy, well two actually, but not in the way you think! I met a guy, well I work with him actually, and he's from Riverdale. I think his friend is too but they're from the Southside. I think the friend might be the same age as you, Jason and Pol. Does the name Archie Andrews ring a bell? He's...' 

Before Betty could finish her sentence Cheryl had interrupted her and finished it for her. 

'Ginger. Yes, you're right. Archie Andrew's is from Riverdale and he is the same age as me. He was Quarterback at Southside High and half my squad made out with him behind the bleacher's after the games Riverdale played against them in our Junior Year, me included.' 

'Wait, what?! Cheryl are you serious?!' 

'Yes Betty, we aren't all as innocent as you! I wanted to piss off Jason so I figured getting hot and heavy with his main rival was the best way.' She laughed and Betty couldn't help smile as she shook her head. 

'So what else do you know about him Cheryl?' 

'Erm let me see. His dad owns Andrew's Construction and I don't think he always lived on the Southside. He lived on the Northside until his parents divorced when he was seven, in fact I think you should ask Polly about him but I'm sure she mentioned he lived near you before he moved. Anyway, his mum moved to Chicago and him and his dad had to sell up and move to the Southside.' 

'Oh my god! I knew something about him was familiar!' 

'Small world, huh? And you said there was two of them from the Southside?' 

' Yeah, erm he's called Jughead... Jughead Jones, he works with me at Lodge Publishing.' Betty felt the heat rise to her cheeks and averted her eyes away from Cheryl, looking out of her window at the city. 

'Betty Cooper are you blushing?! Is he really that hot? Did you get laid!' 

' No Cheryl! I'm definitely not blushing and I definitely did not get laid by Jughead Jones!' 

'Ahh, but you think he's hot! 

'Cheryl please stop! Just tell me if know anything about him?.' 

Cheryl hummed in thought, and held a finger up to Betty to indicate she would just be a minute. The screen went blank as Cheryl paused her and Betty could hear her tapping away at the screen.

'Erm, Cheryl... what are you doing?' 

'My my... Jughead Jones certainly glowed up, why aren't you friends on facebook yet?!' 

Cheryl's face returned to the screen in front of Betty smirking at her.

'Cheryl are you facebook stalking him? Oh my god I knew it was a mistake. If you must know he kind of doesn't like me much, like at all, so we don't really meet the necessary pre-requisites to be facebook friends. What do you mean he glowed up?' 

'Well he used to be this scrawny little thing, hung around with Archie. Weirdest combination of people I've ever seen but they'd been best friends since before pre-school, and their dad's were life-long besties too. Jughead lived with Archie for most of his teenage years after his mum left. His dad's kind of a waste of space from what I gather. But anyway, he got hot! Nice going Betty! 

'Cheryl, I already said it isn't like that, we aren't even friends and he's the last person I-.' 

'Me thinks the Lady doth protest to much Elizabeth! Anyways, I've got to go, Mother is waiting for me, we're going to some stuffy old benefit tonight... don't forget to text Polly about Archie and your dark-haired boy toy. Let me know when you cave with that one. Love ya B!' 

Before Betty even had the chance to chastise Cheryl and return he goodbye, the red-head had blown her a kiss and hung-up, leaving Betty staring at her home screen. So she had been right about Archie. From what Cheryl had said, Jughead hadn't had the best life and it made sense why him and Archie, an unlikely pair, were such close friends. It also kind of made sense as to why Jughead was a bit of an arse. Yet it still wasn't enough to satisfy her curiosity about Jughead and she wanted to know more, especially if she was going to face him at work and not feel completely awkward after the events at Josie's. Sighing, she typed out a message to Polly and hit send before heading to her room to get changed. Hopefully, Polly would reply soon and further satisfy the itching need she felt to know Jughead Jones.

*****

Since returning to the apartment, Jughead had refused to disclose any information about Betty, claiming that he needed some sustanence to get through it and so the two men had been sat in silence for the past half an hour. Archie had grabbed two beers out if the fridge and cradled one in his hands while the other sat in front of Jughead on the coffee table.

'Dude, what the hell is wrong with you seriously? The suspense is killing me.'

'Archie I told you to leave it. Just let me eat first ok.'

'Wow she really has got under your skin hasn't she? I guess it helps that she's kind of hot-'

Jughead glared at his friend who smirked back at him. Opening his mouth to talk, he was quickly halted by Archie holding his hand to silence him.

'Come on Jug. You can't deny it. Especially with how weird you act around her.'

Jughead grabbed the cushion from the sofa next to him and threw it at Archie, scowling. It missed and hit the door at the same moment a loud knock banged against the wood.

'Well fuck,' Jughead thought.' He knew that waiting for food could only spare him so much time but he could have sworn it had never come quicker. Usually he would be practically squealing at the thought of getting delicious food so quickly but for the first time in his life, Jughead's hunger turned to a sick feeling.

Archie grabbed the pizza from the delivery guy and handed him the money, telling him to keep the change and quickly closing the door.

'Here bro. Eat. Digest. Talk.'

Taking the box from his friend Jughead sighed. Archie wasn't going to let off anytime soon.

'Ok, there isn't much to tell other than that Betty works with me at Lodge Industries. Oh and that instagram pic you went so crazy over of Veronica? Yeah Betty's the blonde in the background. The one reading 'In Cold Blood' of all things for fucks sake. They're best friends and she's pretty tight with the Lodge family. She calls our ceo by his first name for fucks sake! Talk about an easy ride?! You know some of us had to work so hard to get here and she just... waltzes in with her tight skirt and blonde ponytail all doe eyed!'

'Jug, calm down! Why does this bother you so much?!'

'Because I fucking flirted with her. I saw her in Josie's before we officially met and I thought she was a bloody angel! I got all cocky. I called her princess for christ's sake. And then when she walked over to me in the lobby with Veronica Lodge I just flipped. She's everything I hate, the easy life, entitled type.'

'Jug that's kind of harsh. I mean do you really know anything about her other than that she's friends with Veronica-'

'I know enough.'

'Ok... but you like her don't you. You still think she's an angel.'

'Archie-'

'Jug.'

'Fine ok. She's the most beautiful and intelligent girl I've ever met. Is that what you what? For me to declare my love for her?! You said it yourself Arch, she's gorgeous but that doesn't change anything-'

'Oh for fucks sake Jug. Do you have any idea how much of an arse you're being? Don't give me any of this bullshit crap about being Veronica's friend. You think she's attractive and intelligent but you claim to hate her. There has to be more to it than that? It's not like she's ever done anything to you, is it?'

'She's from the North side.'

Archie paused, a confused look in his eyes. His best friend was staring out of the window, shoving a slice of pizza down his throat.

'What do you mean, Jug?'

'She's from Riverdale Archie. The fucking North side.'

'Oh seriously Jug, I thought it was them who were supposed to be the prejudiced, stuck up, judgmental ones not us?!'

Jughead laughed, his eyes dark and bitter.

'Because you're a real South sider, Arch? Not like you paraded around town with a different River Vixen on your arm every month pretending like you never moved to the wrong side of the tracks. Pretending just for a second that you were a bulldog.'

Archie sighed.

'Jug, c'mon bro, you know that isn't true. I don't think I remember ever making out with someone called Betty, so your girl was never corrupted by the ginger stallion.'

'Archie you're gross. And she isn't my girl! I don't remember her though.'

'Hey what was her surname again?'

'Cooper.'

'Cooper... it rings a bell...'

Before Jughead could stop him, Archie had grabbed his laptop, opened up the browser and started facebook up.

'Archie!'

'Oh shut up Jug. I think we need to find out more about your blonde princess.'

Jughead let out a low grown, throwing his pizza down on the coffee table.

'She isn't my-'

'Here she is. Betty Cooper. Let's look at her tagged photos see what kinda girl she is.'

'Archie why do you even care so much? It's not like anything's happened or ever will happen between us. She's from Riverdale, so what! It doesn't mean we've met before.'

Archie, not listening to a word his friend was saying stopped scrolling suddenly and gasped.

'Holy Shit Jug! I knew the name sounded familiar. Her sister is Polly freaking Cooper!'

'Erm.. who?'

'Blonde cheerleader? Blossoms girl? He knocked her up before I had the chance to woo her?'

'The one you wouldn't stop talking about for an entire summer after you helped fix her car when she broke down?'

'That's the one!' 

'Ok, glad we established that, now can we forget this whole thing, eat our food and play halo?'

'Haha, nice try Jug. No it doesn't mean we can forget the whole thing. You know why?'

'No Archie, please enlighten me.'

'Because I just remembered something, and I need you to help me find it.' 

'Archie you weirdo, what the hell are you talking about? Can we please just eat pizza?' 

'No we can't Jug, come with me!'

Standing up from the couch, Archie walked over the door of his room, turning round and summoning his friend. Jughead sighed, throwing his slice of pizza back into the box and scowling as he stood up. 

'Urgh for gods sake Archie, fine. What are we looking for?'

' When your mum left with Jelly and things with your dad got bad, do you remember when we came to get you and your things and bring you to live with me and my dad?'

' How could I forget when my mum abandoned me and my dad drank himself into oblivion on a daily basis. Thanks for reminding me bro.' Jughead grumbled.

'Jug, I'm sorry just let me finish. That day we came to get you, me and my dad started to load the car with your things, but you started to take things back out and throw them in a pile next to the garbage. You said you wanted to start fresh, that they reminded you of your mum and why she left.'

' Archie, where are you going with this?'

' One of the things you threw away was the shoebox you kept your polaroid in, with all your photos. Your mum gave it to you when we were so young and I guess it was too much for you to keep it after she left. But you loved that camera, and I couldn't bare to see you throw it away like that so I snuck out later that night, got the box and hid it in the back of my wardrobe. I kept it ever since, even brought it here with us.'

Archie smiled. It was the same sheepish smile that he had been giving his friend their whole lives and Jughead couldn't help but laugh. 

'Archie, this is as great story and I'm actually kinda glad you did that, but what does this have to do with Betty?' 

Kneeling on the floor Archie smiled knowingly and disappeared under the bed, resurfacing with a very dusty and warn shoe box.

'Because Jug, Polly Cooper was my neighbour when I lived on the Northside.'

Jughead watched as his friend rifled through the various pictures, a confused look on his face.

'Ok Arch... again with the weird obsession with this girl. I still don't understand what you're getting at.'

Without taking his eyes away from the pile of photos, Archie continued.

'Well the summer before we moved to the Southside, when my mum left and your mum and dad were over at our place a lot we used to play outside. Do you remember?

'Yes Archie, we built that fort at the bottom of your garden, I still don't see what this has to do with Betty freaking Cooper.'

'Polly was the one who helped us make it, she brought curtains from her wendy house to make it homely.'

Jughead scoffed.

'Oh I don't remember anything about curtains but I do remember she kept bringing awesome cookies with her!'

'No Jug she didn't,' Archie said, a look of satisfaction on his face as he finally picked a photo out of the box, handing it to his friend, 'Betty did.'

'Archie what are you talking abou-'

Looking at the photo in front of him, Jughead stopped in his tracks. It was him, mud on his clothes and a toothy grin on his face. To his right was a small blonde girl dressed in a white t shirt and pink dungarees. At either side of her head was a long blonde pigtail and in her hands was a box of cookies. Jughead's arm was around her waist.

'You made me take this photo. I forgot all about it until you mentioned the Coopers. You made me take this photo because you said that they were the best cookies in the world and-'

'and I wanted to remember the moment I told the girl who made them I wanted to marry her.'

Archie smiled at his best friend, forcing himself not to laugh.

'Fuck. We were what? Six?'

'I think so, I was eight or nine. You were going by Forsythe Junior back then.'

'Oh Jesus Archie don't remind me!'

Archie laughed.

'You had a real thing for her that summer. She was the only other person who could use your camera.'

'Archie I was six. How can a six year old have a thing for someone?!'

'Deny it all you want Jughead Jones but you were completely crazy about that girl!'

'Archie please shut up! Just because I had a crush on her when I was six years old doesn't mean anything! It doesn't change anything! She is still the perfect, Miss Priss, the kind who always gets picked over someone from the wrong side of the tracks like me and who gets by on the fact that she's pretty and rich rather than actual talent. I am not going to suddenly be her best friend because of some stupid photo!'

'Jug come on, why are you being so harsh, you don't know that, from what I remember Alice and Hal were pretty uptight, she probably had no choice-'

'Wait. Hal. Hal Cooper? As in owner of The Riverdale Register? You have got to be fucking kidding me.'

'Jug calm down. She's basically the perfect girl for you I mean if she could bake cookies like that when she was six imagine what she could do now-'

'Archie her dad is Hal Cooper. He is the reason my entire life got torn apart!'

'She isn't her dad J, come on'

'No Archie. Every time I think I could even begin to like this girl, the universe gives me another sign that she is literally the last person I would ever be with.'

'You're being ridiculous!'

'No Archie, you are. You might need a girl fawning over you to get by but I don't and I certainly don 't need one like Betty Cooper. You can finish the pizza I'm going to bed.'

Archie stared in shock as his friend stormed out of the room and slammed the door to his own. In all the time he had known him, Jughead had never left food and he had definitely never offered to let someone else finish it. Sighing, Archie began to place all the photographs back in the box. All he wanted for his friend to be happy. That night, Jughead fell asleep craving a cookie he hadn't tasted for over a decade. He dreamt of sexy blonde hair and seductive pink kisses on his neck, causing an awkward bulge in his shorts when he woke up. When Archie came in to apologise the next morning, Jughead was so mortified that the lips in his dream had been hers, that he forgot to move the polaroid from his bedside table. Archie left his room smiling. Maybe there was hope after all.


	5. Chapter 5

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I really enjoyed writing this chapter although I'm not sure how it turned out. I was hoping to upload it on saturday but I slipped on ice after work friday night and sprained my wrist, they also think I fractured my scaphoid so at the minute it's difficult to type and it's possible I missed a few mistakes. I hope you enjoy :-)

Betty spent the rest of her evening staring at her phone and flicking between the tabs on her laptop screen. She circulated between reading about the Southside Serpents and FP Jones II and stalking Jughead's facebook profile, hovering over the add as friend button more than once. After waiting three hours for Polly to reply with no joy, she finally decided to pick up her battered copy of Pride and Prejudice as a way to distract herself. When even the wit of Miss Elizabeth Bennet didn't help, she threw the book across the room, sighing deeply as she went to pick it up and place it carefully back on the shelf. She tried watching friends re-runs on the tv, but even that agitated her and so she decided that the only thing left for her top do was bake. As a child, Betty used to bake with her Grandma whenever Hal and Alice went away on journalism conventions or were working late hours at the office. By the age of six, she had memorised three of grandma coopers five famous cookie recipes as well as how to make various different types of cakes and when she passed away six years later, it was Betty who got her recipe book. Polly cried out of jealousy and threw a tantrum until their father bought her a recipe book of her own. Alice said that it was unfair that Betty got something and not Polly, she had always hated the relationship her mother-in-law had with her youngest daughter and so Betty had kept it hidden, although never too far away. Baking became her escape. It was her therapist who first suggested that she do it not just for fun, but as a means of distraction during a bad episode. Veronica found her baking in the kitchen at 3am almost every week during their first year at Berkley. It reminded her of a happier, simpler time and gave her something to focus on. It was an added bonus that it proudced some premium comfort eating food.

When she walked into the office the next day, she was the first one there. By the time anyone else arrived, all three batches of cookies had been dished onto plates and put on the coffee room table with a note next to them. The day passed by quickly with almost everyone asking Betty if she could bring baked goods in on a more regular basis. Betty even saw Jughead inspecting the plates when he though no one was looking. Fingering the note that read ' Chocolate chip and caramel cookies, Enjoy, Betty x' in a small, cursive script before quickly grabbing one and heading off for his lunch, probably to Pops. When Veronica came to meet Betty at the end of the day and saw her washing plates and gathering tupperware she immediately went into full blown mother hen mode.

' Betty.....' she said, drawing out the last syllable in a questioning tone as she placed both her frappucino and prada bag on the table

'Oh, hey V. How was your day? Sorry I'll be done in just a minute, I didn't realise the time.'

Betty's eyes never left the sink in front of her as Veronica eyed her tentatively.

'You baked.'

'Oh yeah, I did grandma's cookies, everyone seemed to like them. Ethel asked if could make some brownies next week-'

'Betty...'

'I think I need to do more next time though, they barely even lasted till lunch-' 

' Betty, will you look at me!'

Betty flinched at the raise in Veronica's voice and both women suddenly became aware of how quiet it was. Most people in the building left over half an hour ago and the Betty's floor was seemingly empty.

'B, are you ok?'

Betty placed then last plate in the drainer, pulled the plug and placed the sponge on the side. Turning to face her best friend she smiled meekly.

'Yeah V, I'm ok.'

'What happened babe?'

'Nothing happened really I just got restless. I bumped into Jughead and his friend at Josie's yesterday and let's just say he couldn't leave quick enough. Oh and he basically said I looked like shit.'

Betty laughed to herself as Veronica's mouth dropped in disbelief.

'That arsehole! Oh I swear I will-'

' No Ronnie, it's fine, really. That isn't really what got to me anyway. I spoke to Cher, she's fine by the way before you ask, because I recognised his friend. Turns out he's from Riverdale too, and Jughead had a pretty shitty life. I'm waiting for Polly to message me back, Cheryl thinks she'll know more.'

'Yeah but you didn't exactly have the easiest life either B, it isn't an excuse to be a dick.'

Betty's eyes dropped to the floor.

'V, my dad wrote an article about his dad, about him and his life. It was horrible.

'Oh shit. How many times did you read it?'

'I lost count. Ronnie I couldn't even read Pride and Prejudice. Thank god for Doctor Davis' baking theory.'

'Oh, Betty, I am so proud of you. You've come so far and you are definitely the best intern we've ever had!'

Both girls giggled as they hugged each other tightly.

'Thanks V.'

'Hey, next weekend I'm taking you out. We'll spend the whole day on saturday getting mani-pedis and a blow dry. Giselle will come do our make up and I'll get Fabien to pick up the perfect outfit for you!'

'Really V? and give Jughead another reason to think I only got this job because I'm an over-privileged bitch who sucks up to the Lodge family to get by.'

'Oh Betty screw him! If I want to treat my girl I will. Besides, you'll look so hot and be having so much fun you won't even care what people think.'

'Ok V. I love you.'

'I love you too, now come on. My place for some Chinese food? You can tell me all about this other Riverdale boy you saw. Was he cute?'

As they exited the office and headed to the elevator, neither girl saw a single computer screen still lit at the end of the room, or the raven haired boy sat watching them leave.

******

Betty barely saw Jughead for the rest of the week, which she was definitely thankful for. It was embarrassing enough after what happened at Josie's without adding to the mix the fact her father had basically destroyed his family life. To avoid her anxiety resurfacing Betty threw herself into her work and spent lunchtimes with Ethel and Veronica, who had quickly become friends. She got up early every morning to go for a jog and attended yoga class on Tuesday and Thursday evening. Polly eventually replied to her on Wednesday, apologising for the delay but explaining that Jason had taken her on a surprise ski trip to Switzerland and she'd call her when they got back. By the time she left the office on Friday evening it was seven pm and she was more than ready for the day of pampering Veronica had promised.

No matter how many times Betty had walked into the lobby of the Pembroke apartment building, she still always felt slightly taken aback by the sheer grandeur of it. While Veronica wasn't the only rich person she knew, her penthouse was on a completely different level to where Cheryl or Polly and Jason lived. However, despite feeling out of place, she was always pleasantly surprised by just how friendly everyone was. Having spent plenty of nights at the apartment, and even living there with Veronica when they first left Berkley pretty much all of the staff and most of the residents knew and loved Betty Cooper. While she wasn't from the upper-class she was friendly, empathetic and had impeccable manners. 

'Good Morning Betty!'

'Good Morning Patricia!' Betty smiled back at the woman behind the reception desk. 'How is everything?'

'It's good thank you! Lucy has already come through to do your mani-pedis and Miss Lodge said to expect Giselle and Fabien this afternoon! Are you going anywhere nice?'

'Nowhere special, just a night on the town. You know how Ronnie is though, she loves to be pampered.'

Patricia laughed, 'That she does Betty. Have a nice day!'

'Thanks, see you later!'

Heading over to the elevator she smiled brightly at everyone she passed, waving at Geoffrey as he tipped his hat and sent her up to the Penthouse.

When Betty reached the top floor she was greeted by Smithers and a very excited Veronica.

'Good Morning Miss Cooper.'

'Smithers! How many times do I have to tell you that Betty's fine.' she said as she grabbed the man in a hug. Smithers had been with the Lodge family since before Veronica was born and had been assigned as Veronica's chauffeur, valet and all round warm grandfatherly figure when she moved out. Betty had found him to be soft and friendly and was always grateful for the many hot chocolate's he had brought her during her bad times.

'B! Get over here! Smithers is going to get us some pastries and coffee while Lucy and co. work there magic! We are going to have the time of our lives and I promise you will look like the goddess that you are.

Giggling, Betty placed her coat and bag on the stand next to the door, shooing Smithers playfully as he tried to take them from her and taking a seat next to her friend. For the first time since she started working at Lodge Industries Betty forgot all about Jughead Jones and the parts of Riverdale that haunted her. She laughed, posed for selfies, danced around the room to cheesey music and was truly pampered to perfection. By the time Fabien arrived with their outfits Betty's nails were painted a glittery silver, her hair was down in loose curls and her eyes were smoky and sultry. When Giselle first suggested she wear the dark plum lipstick that was Veronica's staple she had been completely against it but now as she looked at herself in the mirror she felt confident and sexy. 

'Damn Betty, you are looking fine!' Fabien said, kissing her on each cheek, 'and I have the perfect outfit. It might be a little out of your comfort zone but go with me here babe ok?'

Unzipping the garment cover, Fabien watched as Betty's face drained slightly. Motioning to Veronica she quickly finished fastening her shoes and strutted over to her friend.

'Oh my gosh B this will look amazing on you! Please just try it on? If it doesn't instantly make you feel like the sex symbol you are then we can change ok?'

Hesitating Betty took the hanger and took herself into the bedroom. Once she had the dress on she realised just how much she loved it. It made her look and feel like a whole new version of herself. The kind that didn't care what anyone said about her. Finishing the outfit with a pair of chunky glittered heels and a matching clutch she flicked her hair over her shoulder, took one last look at her reflection, and rejoined Veronica in the living room.

'Ok V. Let's go let our hair down a little.'

****** 

Jughead Jones hated clubs. He had never been the social kind, preferring to stay at home and write or watch an old black and white movie while his friends went out drinking. Archie knew this, yet still nagged him tirelessly every weekend to go out with the guys. Usually, he managed to make excuses and Archie would eventually let it drop but tonight was different. Archie was playing a gig, the biggest gig he'd ever got, at a pretty exclusive new club. The owner of the club had seen him play a small set at a local bar a few weeks ago and immediately approached him. The manager had some pretty important friends, and if Archie impressed on opening night, it could lead to his big break.

It was friday night and after a few beers Archie had finally decided tonight was the night that Jughead Jones needed to live a little.

'Come on Jug, as my lifelong best friend, it is your duty to come to these kind of things. Plus I'm sick of you moping around here. You need to get out, meet someone. Maybe then you might forget about a certain blonde...' he smirked.

Jug glared across the room at his friend. 'I swear to god Archie will you shut the fuck up.'

'Jug either admit you like her and do something about it or get over yourself.

Ignoring the comments Jughead sighed. 'Archie, I do not want to spend my saturday night in a room full of sweaty teenagers, watching them stick their tongues down eachothers throat.'

'Jug come on, please? This is a big thing for me! This could be it.'

Ever since they were kids, Archie had known just how to get people to do what he wanted. He had the kind of brown puppy dog eyes that peoiple just couldn't say no to. Only now was Jughead finally started to understand just how effective those eyes were. Maybe Archie was right, maybe a few drinks was just what he needed to make himself stop thinking about Betty. Maybe he'd even find an intelligent, beautiful and modest girl who appreciated true crime and old movies. They probably weren't the sort of people to hang out at Club Code but it was worth a shot.

'Ok fine Arch, but you owe me big time.'

Grabbing him into a bear hug, Archie patted his friend on the back, 'Thanks bro, I'll buy you a pizza.'

That was how Jughead ended up stood at the bar, music pounding and ears ringing, while Archie sat next to him, girls throwing themselves all over him. His set had been a success, and now the real party was getting started. Occasionally, a girl with a name like Cindy or Chantelle would come and start girating against him, trying to dance, but she would soon get bored when she realised that he just wasn't interested. The most recent girl to pounce on Archie had just left to go back to her friends, the shrill sound of her giggle still a fresh hell in Jughead's mind.

'Hey Arch, how long do we have to stay at this thing?'

Archie scoffed, shouting so that he could be heard over the music, 'Oh come on Jug, don't see it as such a chore. It's meant to be fun.'

'Really, Arch, fun? I had more fun at Reggie's new years eve bash than I am doing this and that's saying something.'

Archie turned his head towards the entrance of the club, in the same direction that everyone else seemed to be looking. 

'Holy Shit Jug.'

'Oh what is it Archie, did someone from Jersey Shore just walk in or something, please don't start going all fan girl on me.

Without taking his eyes away from the commotion in front of him Archie nudge Jughead who was laughing to himself at the ridiculousness of the situation.

'Jug just look.'

Turning around Jughead's mouth opened wide. Walking across the dancefloor was Veronica Lodge, all long tanned legs, tight hot pants and stripper heels. She was unmistakeable. Yet it wasn't her that caught the attention of the room. To her left, linked by their arms was none other than Betty Cooper. Yet she was definitely not the Betty Cooper that Jughead knew. She was sexy, her eyes hooded and her lips looking as delicious as they did in his dream. Her hair was down in soft curls that sat on her shoulders and she was wearing a short, fitting wrap dress. It was emerald green and dipped in a V at her chest, exposing her plump, round cleavage. Although the dress sat halfway up her thigh, a slit ran up the side, exposing the smooth skin underneath. She was beautiful. And now there was definitely no way that Jughead was going to get over her. Making eye contact with him she stopped and gulped, elbowing Veronica and muttering something with gritted teeth. Whispering something into her ear, the dark haired girl soon grabbed hold of Betty, and before he knew what was happening they were stood in front of him.

Oozing confidence, Veronica smiled, looking between Jughead and Archie, sending a wink the red-heads way.

'I must say Jones, you were the last person I ever expected to see here. You must be Archie, I'm sorry we missed your set, I'd seen the club advertising it but we were running late. This is Betty, and we work with Jughead, I'm sure he must have told you about us. Mind if we join you?

After a moment of awkwardness, and weird looks between the two boys, Archie finally answered.

'Sure, me and Betty already met actually the other day. What are you drinking?'

Betty opened her mouth, but soon closed it again and looked over at Jughead before looking down at her feet.

'We'll have martinis, but first, do you want to dance Archiekins? I think these two can sort out the drinks don't you. Just have them open a tab in my name. Tonight's on me.'

Both Betty and Jughead snapped their head towards Veronica, cursing her with their eyes. Archie shrugged at Jughead, grabbing the beautiful girl next to him and dragging her to the dance floor and for the first time since Josie's, Jughead and Betty were left alone.


	6. Chapter 6

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Trigger Warning: Mentions of Sexual Abuse, Sexual Harassment, Emotional Abuse, Suicide and Self Harm

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So It has taken me months to write this and all I can say is I'm sorry. Honestly, I love writing this story, and I'm so angry with how long it's taken, but my mental health has been so unbelievably crappy for the past few months and I have been a bit of a mess. I've been trying to write this chapter on and off since January, and I know it could be so much better, but if I edit it or look at it any longer I probably wont end up publishing it. I do really want to continue writing this story, so please let me know if you want me to continue too. I will try and update the best I can but at the minute, everything's a little bit allover the place so I can't promise when it will be, but it definitely wont be months like it has been this time.

Five minutes could have passed since Jughead and Betty were left alone, but it felt like five years. The silence between them was deafening, despite the pounding bassline that vibrated around them. Since Archie and Veronica headed to the dancefloor, neither Betty or Jughead had even looked at each other, in fact, the only time they had taken their eyes away from the bar in front of them was when Betty, feeling anxiety bubbling away inside her, had summoned the bartender, ordered four martinis and downed one of them. Anyone who knew Betty Cooper knew that this was highly uncharacteristic of her, and even more shocking were the longing glances she sent at the drink intended for Veronica. As the bitter aftertaste of the drink burned in her throat, Betty couldn’t help but smirk thinking about how Alice Cooper would be scolding her for being ‘most unbecoming’ if she were here. Thank God she wasn’t. Having her mother here was just about the only thing that could make her current situation any worse.

Betty suddenly became conscious of just how busy the club had gotten around her, sweaty limbs reaching over her, clamouring at the bar. An overwhelming sense of dizziness came over her as she felt palpitations pulsing through her. The combination of anxiety, crowds and the alcohol she’d been having throughout the day was not doing her any favours as she wobbled on her seat and nearly fell off the bar stool. With every breath she felt more and more suffocated. 

‘Hey… Betty are you ok?’

The sound of his voice made her jump slightly and she realised her fingers were gripped tightly on the edge of the bar. Betty gulped slightly, closing her eyes. She had to get out of there.

‘Betty, you don’t look so good, let’s get you some air ok?’ 

A hand crept onto the small of her back, sending a shock through her body and she realised that Jughead had managed to lead her off the barstool and towards the exit of the club. Betty felt like the entire weight of her body rested on his fingers. A bead of sweat ran down her spine and, feeling her legs start go from underneath her, she grabbed his other hand tightly, lacing it with hers. 

‘We’re nearly there now Betts ok? Just keep breathing.’ 

She nodded and quickened her pace, craving a taste of the cool night air. It hit her like a tonne of bricks and she welcomed it. There weren’t many people around, most of them were inside as the headlining DJ was about to take to the stage. 

‘Here, sit down, ok?’ Jughead said, his control over the situation soothing and the concern in his voice surprising. 

Instead of taking her out of the front exit of the club and onto the busy sidewalk, he had taken her into the smoking area. It was more like a garden area than the usual smokers’ zone with benches and trees all around the edge and fairy lights strung from poles. Finally Betty felt like she could see clearly again and became conscious that her hand was still holding his. For the first time since they arrived Betty looked straight into Jughead’s eyes. 

‘I’m sorry, I don’t know what brought that on. I have anxiety issues… you can go back inside though, I’ll be ok out here.’ 

‘Betty there’s no way I’m leaving you.’ 

‘Honestly, it’s fine, Veronica shouldn’t have put you in that position, you don’t need to deal with this, it isn’t your problem.’ 

‘I’m not leaving.’ 

A slight growl came from the back of his throat as he said it but he was anything but aggressive and weirdly Betty felt calm and safe with him. She could see that behind his icy grey irises was something soft and warm. Something that understood how she felt. A few moments passed before Betty broke the silence. 

‘So…’ 

‘So…’ 

‘I think Veronica likes Archie.’ 

‘God don’t ever let him on to that, he will never shut up about the fact that the goddess that is Veronica Lodge thinks he’s attractive. He already practically Instagram stalks her as it is.’ Jughead laughed. 

And it was melodic. 

It reminded her of summer. A summer spent down by Sweetwater River with her family and neighbours, smiling, splashing and squealing in the water. Hal taking her and Polly to the Ice-Cream van while Alice lounged in the sun, the work she had vowed she would have to do untouched in her bag at her feet. A summer before her parents stop trying to be so discreet about their problems, before the cracks began to appear in her perfect picket-fence life. When even her mother let go for once, except to cake her girls in sun cream every few hours. It was the perfect summer. Free and innocent. Betty wondered if Jughead had ever had a summer like that. If he, like her, could remember a time of unadulterated happiness. She remembered looking across the river to the Southside and seeing families, laughing and smiling just like she was but something in the pit of her stomach told her Jughead’s hadn’t been one of them and it made her truly sad. Her life hadn’t been the best, but at least she had one memory that she could hold on to. Maybe Jughead didn’t even have that. 

‘Betty?’ 

The softness of his voice roused her back to reality and she became very aware of the way he was staring at her. 

‘Sorry, I just got a little…’ 

‘Hey, it’s ok you don’t have to explain.’ 

Betty smiled and suddenly felt the urge to hold back a giggle as she remembered exactly how a panic attack usually makes her look. Jughead rose his eyebrows in confusion, waiting for her to explain. 

‘Nothing I just… I guess I must really look like shit.’ She smirked, with a wink. 

The alcohol that her and Veronica had been drinking for the past few hours had obviously affected her more than she had thought and had given her a weird sense of confidence. Not just the kind of confidence that made an innocent girl like Betty Cooper go to a night club of all places, but the kind of confidence that made an innocent girl like Betty Cooper wink at man who is not only extremely hot but who also happens to be a complete arsehole that hates her guts. A mixture of gin, vodka and prosecco buzzed through her veins making her feel woozy and giggly and she began to think about Jughead. If he really did hate her guts then why had he stayed outside with her this whole time? If he didn’t want to leave her alone he could have just fetched Veronica. Maybe Jughead wasn’t who she had initially thought. If he was really an arsehole he would have probably just left her alone, but he didn’t. In fact, Betty was overcome with gratitude for the way he had helped her through the situation. 

Looking across at the raven haired man next to her, Betty realised that Jughead had a look of protest on his face. He was about to argue with her that she looked the complete opposite of shit when he realised what she was getting at and his cheeks begin to burn. 

‘Betty… I’m so sorry I said that, I was a jerk. You don’t look like shit, you look amazing actually. Really amazing. Just like you did that day in Josie’s.’ 

Speechless, her eyes met his and she opened her mouth to speak but closed it again when nothing but an almost inaudible squeak came out. Jughead held her gaze for a few seconds before tearing himself away and looking instead at his jeans, pretending there was some dust on his thigh. As he inspected his leg Betty opened her mouth again but before she could close it a loud hiccup came out. Jughead jumped and looked up in shock. Suddenly unable to contain herself, Betty laughed uncontrollably. 

‘I’m sorry, I promise I’m not usually like this, I don’t even usually drink that much’

Jughead nodded at her. 

‘Yeah, neither do I… In fact, usually I’d rather be seen dead than in a place like this. Coffee shops and libraries are really more my speed’

Betty giggled. 

‘Honestly I’m quite happy to just stay at home watching old movies but Veronica likes to remind me I’m in my twenties not my seventies. I’m sure you’ve worked out by now that she’s a force to be reckoned with.’ 

‘You could say that. When I first found out she was going to be working at Lodge Industries I just presumed it was because she was ‘Daddy’ had given her a job, but she actually seems to know what she’s doing.’ 

‘Yeah, Ronnie may come across as a spoilt rich girl, but she went through a lot in her teenage years. She has spent her whole life mingling with people who doubted her and doubted that she could ever run any part of Lodge Industries because she’s a woman. Ever since she turned sixteen the New York Elite started preying on her, hoping that they could strike a deal with Hiram Lodge. To them she was just a pawn in a game, and the winner got her hand in marriage. Whoever won Veronica, got Lodge Industries too. Boys she had grown up with, played games with while their father’s talked business, and who she thought were her friends started to show their true colours. She was a prize to them and when she said no, some of them refused to accept it. One of them in particular got forceful with her. Hiram was furious and cut all business ties with the family. They offered Veronica a settlement, they said as a way to make right what their son did, but everyone knew it was hush money.’ 

Jughead’s face crumpled as though he was silently wincing. 

‘They wanted her to sign a non-disclosure agreement. The St Claire’s are generally a well-respected family in New York and if word got out about what their son had done it would ruin them. She was never going to agree to it anyway, but then a girl stopped her outside their apartment building. Veronica wasn’t the only one that Nick had harassed. There was a long list of girls he had been forceful with, and he’d even drugged some of them, but none of them had the kind of power or influence that Veronica did. The others had been forced into silence by the St Claire’s legal team as soon as they appeared with any kind of claim against Nick. Veronica was disgusted, and called the police immediately. The St Claire’s managed to keep it fairly quiet and out of the press because of their connections, but Nick got sent to jail, and Veronica started a charitable foundation for women who have been through sexual assault or harassment, and got a lot of people who used to be friends with the St Claire’s to turn their back on the family and support the charity. All of that happened before she turned eighteen, and by the time I met her at Berkeley she was one of the fiercest woman to come out of New York.’ 

‘Jesus. That’s awful.’ 

‘Yeah, some people accused her of being spiteful and vindictive because she did a lot of damage to Nick’s family but they had known about his behaviour, and let it happen. I think she’s an inspiration. She’d always been interested in the family business, and it was Veronica that managed to steer Hiram away from getting mixed up with something not quite on the right side of the law. He nearly ruined the business but she stopped him. Ronnie is actually passionate about Lodge Industries. She isn’t like other heiresses who spend their parents’ money without ever having to work towards it. She once told me that she wants to earn the pearls around her neck. She even interviewed for her job you know? Hiram would have been happy to give it to her but she wanted it to be open to everyone, and for the board to decide who deserved it.’ 

‘I guess I just presumed that she was your typical Daddy’s girl, but I couldn’t have been more wrong really could I?’ 

‘You should never judge a book by its cover Jug. I thought you of all people would know that.’ 

As soon as the words came out of her mouth Betty looked away. She couldn’t believe what she had just said. Jughead froze, his muscles stiffening, his entire demeanour changed. 

‘What’s that supposed to mean Betty.’ 

He sounded angry, but Betty could sense that he felt betrayed by her. She couldn’t make eye contact. 

‘Nothing… I didn’t mean to, please just forget I said that Jug.’ 

He didn’t answer her, and looked down at his boots. Betty could hear her heart beating. At least ten seconds of silence had passed but she had lost count of how many times her heart pounded and she couldn’t bear it anymore. 

‘Jug-‘

Jughead snapped his head up and looked at her dead in the eye. His cheeks were flushed and his eyes were watery. Betty could tell that it was with anger, and not sadness that he looked as though he was about to cry. 

‘Don’t Betty. Just don’t’ He snapped. 

‘No but Jughead please listen! That isn’t what I meant!’ 

‘I said don’t!’ 

He was shouting now, and closer to her face than she had realised. She moved her hand to his shoulder, a sadness in her eyes and he flinched. He jumped backwards away from her. 

‘Don’t try and deny it Betty. You were finally honest, saying what you’ve been thinking ever since you found out I was from the Southside. Of course I should know not to judge, when I’ve been judged my whole life. Surely some trailer trash kid with a criminal for a father should know what it’s like when people judge you based on appearances, I mean, I grew up surrounded by gang members so what do you expect.’ 

‘Jughead no, I don’t think that at all.’ 

‘Of course you do Betty! It’s probably worked into your DNA like the rest of Riverdale’s North-Side. To you we’re nothing but trouble-makers for you to blame everything on and write good headlines about. Either that or poor souls to pity for being from the wrong side of the tracks. Your father didn’t show much pity on my father though, did he Betty?’ 

Betty gasped, and tears filled her eyes but Jughead couldn’t stop himself. He knew he was going too far, but years of pent up anger was bubbling through his veins and he was drowning in it. 

‘Oh Betty, I bet the second you got home after we saw you in Josie’s, hell maybe even after that first day in Pops you started digging so don’t think I didn’t do some digging too.’ 

Betty was sure if she wasn’t so shocked and upset she would’ve blushed that he guessed she’d practically stalked him online.

‘Did you manage to find out anything interesting about me Betty? About my dad? Did you pity me for what happened to my father? Or were you too busy blessing the stars for your perfect picket fence life with your perfect family who eat home cooked meals together every night, and go to church in pastel clothes on a Sunday. I bet Daddy dearest filled you in on some juicy gossip when you told him about me didn’t he? Maybe you even agree with what he wrote.’ 

‘Jughead please stop.’ Betty’s voice broke and she began to shake but Jughead continued with his rant, taking no notice of the girl in front of him. 

‘I bet he calls you every night to tell you how proud of you he is, and how much your mother misses you, doesn’t he? I wish I could ring my dad up Betty but I can’t. He was murdered, and it all started with that article in The Riverdale Register.’ 

A sob escaped Betty’s mouth and tears ran down her cheeks. Jughead stopped, shocked by his own behaviour but before he could say anything Betty was heading back into the club and away from him. She wasn’t running but she was walking as quickly as she could. 

‘Betty!’ 

He tried to call after her, standing up and running towards the club entrance but she couldn’t hear him over the noise. He thought he’d lost her in the crowd, but saw a flash of ginger on the dancefloor and noticed Archie. Next to him was Veronica, with a concerned look on her face as the blonde girl ran past her. Before she could slip away, Veronica had grabbed Betty’s wrist and turned her around. Jughead couldn’t read what she was saying, but as she pulled her arm back, and turned to leave, she looked in his direction one more time with a broken expression on her face. 

‘Shit.’ 

The tall raven-haired girl was walking towards him, parting the dancefloor to reach the back door of the club. Trailing behind her was Archie, with a ‘what the fuck’ look on his face. Veronica didn’t look pissed off, she looked livid. 

‘I swear to god Jones what the fuck did you think you were doing!’ 

Before he could answer he was pushed back out into the garden and dragged over to one side, practically pinned to a wall by a neatly manicured hand. 

‘You have absolutely no idea what that girl has been through, and she has worked so god damn hard to get where she is both in her work and mentally. If Betty has so much as even thought about hurting one hair on her head because of what you’ve done I will get your ass fired quicker than you can say asshole.’ 

Jughead’s mouth dropped open as Archie put a hand on Veronica’s shoulder and tried to prise her away. 

‘Hey Ronnie, come on, get off of him, what has he even done?’ 

Veronica glared at Archie, nostrils flaring before looking head on at Jughead, refusing to break eye contact. 

‘What has he done? From what I could make out between all the sobs and the sniffles, he has made some grossly incorrect assumptions about Betty and her family life, told her how lucky she is to still have a father and blamed her because her dad is a shitty person who somehow ruined his life. Well guess what dickhead, Betty’s father is dead. He committed suicide and she found his fucking body. Her family life was never perfect, her mother was and still is manipulative and emotionally abusive, and her parents expected her to be nothing but perfect her whole life, but finding Hal hanging from the ceiling really broke her. You have no idea what she has been through, you have no idea about her life, yet you freely judge her based on the way she dresses, who her friends are and where she comes from. That thing that you pretty much accused her of doing.’ 

Jughead looked at Archie, filled with regret. 

‘I didn’t know.’ 

‘Of course you didn’t know, because you never bothered to find out, you just jumped straight in there with your preconceptions.’ 

‘God, I have to tell her I’m sorry, I have to see her!’ 

‘No Jughead, you stay the hell away from her. God knows what you’ve done to her, but I’m guessing it isn’t good. Archie, it was fun, but I need to go and find my best friend and make sure she’s ok.’ 

Glaring at Jughead one last time, Veronica turned with a flick of her hair, and strutted away from them, grabbing her phone to dial Smithers. 

‘Sure Ronnie… you have my number right.’ 

‘I sure do Archiekins,’ she called turning to glance at him one more time, ‘but don’t hold your breath.’ 

As they watched her disappear into the club, Jughead leant back and hit his head against the cold brick wall. 

‘Shit Archie.’ 

‘Dude what the hell happened.’ 

‘I fucked up Arch, I really fucked up. 


	7. Chapter 7

Betty wasn’t at work on Monday. Jughead didn’t even need to see her empty desk to notice her absence. The usual post-weekend smell of freshly baked goods did not crawl up his nostrils as soon as he walked through the door and the mug of wildflowers on Betty’s desk were wilted and drying, the same bunch as they had been on Friday. As far as he knew, Betty was always the first person to arrive in a morning. By the time most people arrived, Betty was already drinking her second coffee of the day, had just about finished her breakfast and was checking her inbox. Even on a Monday morning, when everyone else had dragged themselves out of bed, and didn’t quite wake up until lunchtime, Betty was just as cheerful as ever. There was something about her that just seemed to light up a room. Without her, the atmosphere felt off. It wasn’t until just before lunchtime that Jughead realised that the office was awfully quiet. Of course, it could have been completely unrelated to Betty’s absence but Lodge Publishing house was usually far from quiet. As one of the busiest publishing houses in the city, the phones were forever ringing and fingers were typing pretty much constantly. Even though the office buzzed as usual, it still felt like something was missing. Jughead never thought it was possible to miss anyone other than his sister, he’d gotten used to being abandoned by his parents when his mum took Jellybean to Toledo with Mike and his dad spent most days drinking himself stupid with the Southside Serpents. As awful as it was, he hadn’t missed his mother since he was fourteen, and his dad’s death made him angry more than sad. Yet for some reason, he found himself missing Betty. 

While Jughead consciously spent the best part of the morning looking from Betty’s desk, to the clock and then to the door in hopes she’d appear, barely anyone else other than Ethel seemed to notice her absence. People seemed miserable though, more miserable than usual, and Jughead couldn’t help wonder if it was because there was no Betty. It was almost impossible not to smile around Betty, and it seemed even less possible to actually dislike her. Even though he had spent every minute since that first day trying to convince himself he did and accuse her of being a fake snob who had life easy, or of anything that meant he was justified in disliking her, it had become increasingly difficult to do so. It didn’t help that he had found her incredibly and effortlessly attractive right from the get go, and he cringed at the thought of how he basically managed to insult her in Josie’s. That was when he first began to realise that maybe she wasn’t completely full of herself like Veronica. The first time she brought her baking into the Office and he had overheard a private conversation between the two friends was when he first started to doubt his opinions of her, but now, after what happened on Friday night, there was no way he could continue to dislike her. He had seen her at her most vulnerable and helped her through it, seeing something in her that he never expected to see. That was, of course, before everything got fucked up. He had to make it right.

After Veronica had left the club on Friday night, it took Archie and Jughead a while to compose themselves before they hailed a cab home. Neither one said a word, which made the whole experience uncomfortable and awkward. When they finally reached their apartment, Jughead was more than happy to go to his room, get into bed and spend the whole weekend laying there watching his favourite movies. He definitely did not want to talk about what just happened, if anything, he wanted to forget the whole situation and hope that an asteroid would blow up the earth before he had to face Betty and Veronica on Monday. Archie was having none of it and it wasn’t until he had spent a five minutes in the doorway, refusing to move even as his friend started to undress, that Jughead realised he was going to have to talk.

‘Arch, please I’m really not in the mood, I Just want to sleep.’

‘I get that Jug but you can’t just avoid this, from what I saw, Betty was not in a good way.’

Jughead turned to face his friend, and a wave of anger hit him.

‘Don’t you think I know that Archie? If all you’re going to do is point out the obvious and make me feel shittier than I already do then please just leave me alone!’

‘Jug come on, you know that’s not what I’m doing, but you need to talk about it, what the hell happened?’ Why were you even outside with her anyway?’

‘Archie do I really have to go through this now? Can’t we talk tomorrow?’

‘No Jug we can’t. You’re not acting like you, I mean you didn’t even raid the fridge or make me order takeout. That’s usually your first port of call when I’ve dragged you out, and also when you’re upset.’

Jughead sighed, rolling his eyes and throwing himself on the bed. Archie really wasn’t going to let up.

‘Fine, after you and Veronica just left us at the bar she was really on edge and when it got busy she started having a panic attack. I could see what was happening and so I took her outside to get away from the crowds and get some air. I didn’t want to take her onto the street because I knew it would be packed so I took her into the smoking garden. We chatted, she said something about not judging a book by its cover, I snapped and then she left. End of. Now please let me sleep.’

‘Erm no Jug that isn’t end of! You must have been out there for a while before she left what happened before she got upset? Why didn’t you fetch Ronnie instead?’

‘Archie seriously? Once we were outside she wanted me to leave her, but there was no way I was leaving her when she was having an attack, not even to fetch Veronica. It took her a few minutes to settle down so we talked about you and Veronica being so obviously into each other, she joked about looking like shit because of the incident at Josie’s, I found out that she prefers old movies to nightclubs and she told me how Veronica came to work at Lodge Industries, that was it.’

‘Ok you are going to tell me all about Veronica being into me later, but for now, seriously dude old movies? She is literally perfect for you. We already know you think she’s attractive, and your face when you saw her walk in earlier really gave it away but you’re so freaking stubborn and hung up on stupid shit that you deny liking her. What did you say when she sassed you about Josie’s?’

Jughead sighed, closing his eyes and running his hands through his hair as he thought about the evening. Her long legs and curved figure. Her eyes pulling him in as he gazed at her and her lips, so enticing that he almost leant in to kiss them.

‘I told her she didn’t look like shit and-'

Jughead paused

‘And what Jug?’

Jughead looked away from his friend.

‘That she actually looked amazing.’

‘Holy shit Jug did you have a moment with Betty Cooper?’

Jughead didn’t answer. Was it a moment? Or was it just the perfume on her soft neck intoxicating him? He had for a second thought they were going to kiss, and for a second he had wanted to kiss her. He remembered how a stray curl had fallen across her eye and more than anything he had wanted to touch it. But she was from the Northside, and her dad was Hal cooper, not forgetting the comment that started this whole mess. Had she really not meant anything by it? Maybe he had been too rash.

‘Jug?’

‘Hmm?’

‘I asked if you and Betty had a moment and you spaced out. Did something else happen between you two?’

‘Not really no.’

‘What do you mean not really, you either had a moment or you didn’t, what happened?’

‘I’ve told you, nothing happened, there was just a split second where I became aware of how close we were and… well nothing.’

‘For fucks sake Jug something obviously did. Did she try to kiss you?’

‘No!’

‘Well do you wish she had?’

Jughead hesitated, making his answer clear.

‘Jug why didn’t you kiss?’

‘It happened so quickly! The moment was gone!’

‘Why didn’t you seize the moment dude?’

‘Because I was too busy thinking… another drink and I probably would’ve done but I wasn’t drunk enough to go through with it.’

‘Jesus Christ Jug, are you finally going to admit you like her?’

‘She’s beautiful.’ 

‘And?’

‘

And nothing.’

‘Jug you complete idiot! Get your head out of your arse, look past all this Riverdale rich girl bullshit that you seem to believe and tell me what you really think.’ ‘I guess she has an amazing taste in books…and movies. She’s intelligent and really good at her job, as much as I hate to admit it she works so damn hard, and she also makes the best cookies I’ve ever had.’

‘So what you’re trying to say is that basically she’s an angel who is the most perfect human being for you and you’ve been a little bit in love with her since you were six years old.’

‘How can I have been in love with her since I was six Jug? I only knew her for like a summer and then didn’t see her again for nearly twenty years?’ ‘You’re not denying the perfect angel bit though are you?’

Grabbing a pillow he threw it at the ginger boy.

‘Archie I swear to god you are so annoying can you please just go away.’

'Not until you tell me that you’re going to get over yourself, tell Betty how you feel, marry her and live life as a seventy year old couple, staying in watching classic movies and reading true crime, while still in your twenties.’

‘Archie I fucked up bad. I really upset her. Veronica will never let me near her, I wouldn’t be surprised if I don’t have a job on Monday morning, and even if I could get near her she probably never wants to see me again.’

‘Come on Jug, you can’t just give up. Yes you’ve been a complete arsehole and yes Veronica Lodge may kill you but you have to at least try and speak to her, I think you owe her an apology if nothing else.’

Archie’s voice was filled with pity as he sat down on the bed next to his oldest friend. He had never seen such a mixture of regret and sadness in the familiar pair of icy blue eyes and it worried him. It had been obvious that Jughead liked Betty but without him realising, she had managed to work her way through his many layers of clothing and under his skin. He had never really hated her, but she reminded him of home, and for Jug, home was far from his happy place. She reminded him of all the pain he had been through, his family breaking apart, his mum running off with a guy from the Northside, taking his sister but leaving him to deal with his alcoholic dad. His own home filled with criminals as FP became more and more prominent with the Serpents, Jughead locking himself in his room to avoid being coaxed into the ‘family business’. Having to work three jobs just to put himself through college, and facing looks of disapproval from everyone around him, those on the Southside because he wanted to do something with his life that wasn’t illegal, and those from the Northside because a boy like him couldn’t possibly have good intentions. Being woken up in the early hours of the morning by the Sheriff Keller breaking the door down to arrest FP for the kidnap and murder Jason Blossom. Getting a letter from his dad promising that the whole thing had been a mix up, that he had been employed by Clifford Blossom and swearing he played no part in murdering Jason, but Clifford had threatened to kill Jughead if he didn’t take the blame. Receiving a phone call to say his father had been released on bail because of new evidence, but the police cruiser escorting him had been involved in an unexplained accident and he better get to the hospital as quick as possible. Seeing his father lying unconscious in a hospital bed, bloody and bruised, the chances of him living growing slimmer by the minute. Falling asleep for only a second and being woken up by the sound of FP Jones flatlining right before his eyes. Medical staff trying their best to revive him while Jughead was ushered out of the room, staring at his father’s lifeless body and knowing this was it. The look of false pity in the doctor’s eyes as he told Jughead there was nothing more they could do. His anger towards everyone who had ever failed him or his father: his mother, the serpents, Clifford Blossom, Hal Cooper, the police, basically the entire fucking town. Somehow Betty reminded him of it all. Before he knew she was from Riverdale, it was the fact that she had connections, that she seemed like your typical middle-class girl who’d had an easy life, the kind of person that made his entire life difficult, that made him dislike her. Then when he found out she was from Riverdale, worse still, the Northside it made everything so real for him again, especially when he heard the name Cooper. All of his anger had come flooding back and he had wrongly directed it at her. His father had taught him from a young age never to trust a Northsider, that no matter what they said or did, they would always see someone from the Southside as trash, judge the book by its cover and think they were better than them. Betty talking about books and covers had flipped a switch inside of him, and he was starting to realise that maybe his father had been wrong. His mother was still with Mike and the last he heard, an ex-Serpent was the current deputy mayor of Riverdale. Maybe they had been the ones to judge by appearances and jump to conclusions.

It had been a few minutes since either of the boys had spoken, and Jughead was clearly deep in thought, a look of sadness on his face. There was only one way Archie knew to cheer his best friend up, and that was to order takeout. Whether he was angry, stressed, uninspired, sad or bored, food had always been the answer.

‘Hey Jug, why don’t we order some food in? I know it’s late but there’s still some 24 hour places open, we could get Pop’s on UberEats? We could watch a movie, and I’ll even let you choose one of the weird black and white ones you love so much?’

Jughead looked at his friend, noting the sense of worry behind his brown eyes, and for a moment he considered Archie’s offer but all he really wanted to do was to be alone and sleep for as much of Sunday as he could.

‘Thanks Arch, but I’m really tired, I just wanna go to sleep. Maybe we could watch a movie tomorrow though?’

Something sank in the pit of Archie’s stomach. In all the time he had known his Jug, his best friend had never turned down food, in fact, it was very rare he wasn’t at least snacking on something. Other than writing and true-crime, food from Pop’s and black and white movies were basically Jughead’s life. This had affected Jughead more than he seemed willing to admit, and he was behaving really out of character. If Jug was ever going to get the guts to speak to Betty and snap out of whatever was happening to him there was only one person that could help.

‘Sure thing Jug, I’ll see you in the morning yeah?’

‘Yeah.’

Leaving the room and making sure to close the door tightly behind him, Archie grabbed a glass of water from the kitchen and made his way to bed, grabbing his phone and scrolling through his contacts, hearing a familiar dial tone as he placed the handset to his ear. Just as he was about to give up and end the call a groggy and very grouchy voice picked up at the other end.

‘Archie Andrew, I swear to god there better be a bloody good reason why you’re calling me at four in the morning! I may only be 5ft but I will kick your ass when I next see you.’

Archie rolled his eyes. Not like he hadn’t already had enough Jones sass so far today.

‘Hi J.B, nice to speak to you too. Look it’s Jug… it’s nothing serious but he turned down Pop’s and a movie.’

‘Seriously Arch, it’s too early for this shit… did you offer to let him choose what you watched?’

‘Yes.’

‘Well what happened to make him like this? He never turns down food.’

‘Well there’s a girl-'

‘Jesus Christ, Archie, there’s a girl in my brother’s life and you’re only telling me about her now!’

‘Well it’s complicated, he’s claimed to hate her ever since they met.’

‘God why is nothing ever simple with my brother, he’s such a pain in the ass.’

‘Tell me about it J.B.’

‘Ok, well what’s this girl like? I’m guessing he’s suddenly realised he actually doesn’t hate her?’

‘You could say that. It only took him being a complete dick to her, telling her she looks like shit and then almost kissing her before having a massive angry rant at her to realise it. She works with him at Lodge Publishing, loves old movies and true-crime, she looks like a blonde angel, oh and she’s from Riverdale. The Northside.’

‘Well shit Archie!’

‘Yeah she baked him cookie when we were six and he immediately wanted to marry her. He forgot about that though until I found an old photo out which, by the way, he’s left on his bed side table ever since.’

‘So basically she’s like the perfect girl for him and you need me to come and slap some sense into him?’

‘Yeah, it would be good if you could.’

‘Ok, well I’m working this weekend but I can be there by the time he’s home from work Monday?’

‘J.B, did I ever tell you, you’re my favourite non-biological sister?’

‘Andrew’s I better be your only non-biological sister!’

‘You know it Jelly! Hey listen, don’t tell Jug you’re coming ok? You know what he’s like!’

‘Sure thing, but one thing, what’s this girls name? I need to do some internet stalking to prepare for the whole situation.’

‘It’s Betty. Betty Cooper.’

‘A Cooper. From the Northside.’

‘Yep.’

‘He must really be living up to his angry, broody persona. A psychiatrist’s dream patient right now.’

‘I know J.B. But honestly, I’ve met her and she seems really nice. She’s been through some shit.’

‘I don’t doubt it Arch. Now let me get my beauty sleep! See you Monday.’

‘Yeah Jell, see you then.’

Ending the call, Archie put his phone on charge with a smile on his face. If anyone could help Jughead, it was J.B and he was looking forward to seeing her on Monday. Deciding he should probably get some sleep, he undressed and got under the covers and reached to turn off the lamp, pausing as his hand hovered over his phone. Picking up the handset and opening Instagram, he found Veronica’s profile and tapped message.

‘Hey V, thanks for the fun tonight, sorry it ended like it did. I hope you and Betty got home ok. I really hope she’s ok. Archie xxx’

It wasn’t long after pressing send that the message status changed to seen, and even though he stared blankly at his phone for almost half an hour, no reply came.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hi everyone, thanks for being patient with me! Sorry it took a while to update again, I've been trying to write this chapter forever! I hope you like it, I originally wanted to have both the Jughead and Betty aftermath in this chapter but the Archie/Jughead section ended up being longer than I expected and so I decided to split the aftermath of the club incident into two or three chapters. Hopefully, because I have the ideas already there it shouldn't take me to long to update again !:-)
> 
> I have tumblr too @clozzersaurus and I really want to use it more and connect with more people on there, I'm such a loser with no online friends so please follow me and say Hi!
> 
> P.s I hope you liked the introduction of J.B !


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